Probing spacetime fluctuations using cold atom traps

We investigate the position oscillation of a particle that models the center of mass quantum state of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to the zero-point fluctuations of the gravitational field. A semiclassical analysis is performed that allows to calculate the mean square amplitude of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2013-01
Main Authors: Wang, Charles H -T, Bingham, Robert, J Tito Mendonca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atom traps
Atomic properties
Cold traps
Condensates
Gravitational fields
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum theory
Variation
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We investigate the position oscillation of a particle that models the center of mass quantum state of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to the zero-point fluctuations of the gravitational field. A semiclassical analysis is performed that allows to calculate the mean square amplitude of the oscillation. In analogy with the Lamb shift in quantum electrodynamics, this gives rise to an upshift of the energy of the trapped condensates. We show that for an elongated trap, the energy shift scales quadratically with the length as well as cubically with the total number of atoms.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1002.2962