Toward quantum gravity measurement by cold atoms

We propose an experiment for the measurement of gravitational effect on cold atoms by applying a one-dimensional vertically sinusoidal oscillation to the magneto-optical trap, and observe the signature of low quantum energy shift of quantum-bound states as a consequence of gravitational fluctuation....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of plasma physics 2013-08, Vol.79 (4), p.437-442
Main Authors: DOS SANTOS, MARCILIO M., ONIGA, TEODORA, MCLEMAN, ANDREW S., CALDWELL, MARTIN, WANG, CHARLES H.-T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Approximation
Atoms & subatomic particles
Bose-Einstein condensates
Cold atoms
Density
Fluctuation
Gravity
Gravity effects
Mathematical analysis
Perturbation methods
Plasma physics
Quantum gravity
Quantum theory
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Summary:We propose an experiment for the measurement of gravitational effect on cold atoms by applying a one-dimensional vertically sinusoidal oscillation to the magneto-optical trap, and observe the signature of low quantum energy shift of quantum-bound states as a consequence of gravitational fluctuation. To this end, we present brief details of the experiment on a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC), and a simplistic calculation of the Gross–Pitaevskii solution using the Thomas–Fermi approximation with focus on the density of the BEC for the time-dependent perturbation. Moreover, we calculate the power induced by quantum gravity on a generic atomic ensemble. We also address the possible challenges for the measurement of the expected results. Finally, we discuss the prospect of further developing this experiment toward measuring the effect of quantum spacetime fluctuations on cold atoms.
ISSN:0022-3778
1469-7807
DOI:10.1017/S0022377813000202