Quantum Connectivity of Space-Time and Gravitationally Induced Decorrelation of Entanglement

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new approach to quantum optics in curved space-time, predicting gravitationally induced decoherence of entanglement, and suggests an experiment to observe this effect.

Contribution

It introduces a localized operator formulation for quantum fields in curved space-time, contrasting it with the standard approach and predicting observable entanglement decorrelation due to gravity.

Findings

New formulation predicts gravitational de-correlation of entanglement.

Proposed experiment can test the predicted decoherence.

Observable differences from standard theory under realistic conditions.

Abstract

We discuss an alternative formulation of the problem of quantum optical fields in a curved space-time using localized operators. We contrast the new formulation with the standard approach and find observable differences for entangled states. We propose an experiment in which an entangled pair of optical pulses are propagated through non-uniform gravitational fields and find that the new formulation predicts de-correlation of the optical entanglement under experimentally realistic conditions.