Relative Acceleration Noise Mitigation for Nanocrystal Matter-wave Interferometry: Application to Entangling Masses via Quantum Gravity

• Published in: arXiv.org 2021-04
• Main Authors: Toroš, Marko, Thomas W van de Kamp, Marshman, Ryan J, Kim, M S, Mazumdar, Anupam, Bose, Sougato
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceleration; Entanglement; Equivalence principle; Falling; Interferometry; Noise; Quantum gravity; Vibration
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2007.15029

Matter wave interferometers with large momentum transfers, irrespective of specific implementations, will face a universal dephasing due to relative accelerations between the interferometric mass and the associated apparatus. Here we propose a solution that works even without actively tracking the relative accelerations: putting both the interfering mass and its associated apparatus in a freely falling capsule, so that the strongest inertial noise components vanish due to the equivalence principle. In this setting, we investigate two of the most important remaining noise sources: (a) the non-inertial jitter of the experimental setup and (b) the gravity-gradient noise. We show that the former can be reduced below desired values by appropriate pressures and temperatures, while the latter can be fully mitigated in a controlled environment. We finally apply the analysis to a recent proposal for testing the quantum nature of gravity [S. Bose et. al. Phys. Rev. Lett 119, 240401 (2017)] through the entanglement of two masses undergoing interferometry. We show that the relevant entanglement witnessing is feasible with achievable levels of relative acceleration noise.