Bell test for the free motion of material particles

TL;DR

This paper proposes a Bell test using the free motion of two massive particles generated from a diatomic molecule, demonstrating non-classical correlations without internal entanglement, and discusses experimental feasibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme to observe Bell inequality violations through motional states of separated particles without internal entanglement, using molecular dissociation and atom interferometry.

Findings

Dispersion effects are significant but controllable.

The proposed setup is feasible with current technology.

Bell inequality violation is theoretically achievable in the scheme.

Abstract

We present a scheme to establish non-classical correlations in the motion of two macroscopically separated massive particles without resorting to entanglement in their internal degrees of freedom. It is based on the dissociation of a diatomic molecule with two temporally separated Feshbach pulses generating a motional state of two counter-propagating atoms that is capable of violating a Bell inequality by means of correlated single particle interferometry. We evaluate the influence of dispersion on the Bell correlation, showing it to be important but manageable in a proposed experimental setup. The latter employs a molecular BEC of fermionic Lithium atoms, uses laser-guided atom interferometry, and seems to be within the reach of present-day technology.