Macroscopic superpositions and gravimetry with quantum magnetomechanics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates creating macroscopic quantum superpositions with a levitated resonator to perform highly sensitive gravimetry, surpassing current methods and enabling gravitational measurements at unprecedented small scales.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum magnetomechanical scheme for macroscopic superpositions and a new interferometry protocol for ultra-precise gravimetry.

Findings

Achieved gravimetric sensitivity 20 times better than existing atom and corner-cube gravimeters.

Proposed measurement of gravitational fields at scales eight orders of magnitude smaller.

Successfully prepared macroscopic quantum superpositions in a levitated resonator.

Abstract

We utilise a magneto-mechanical levitated massive resonator in the quantum regime to prepare highly macroscopic quantum superposition states. Using these macroscopic superpositions we present a novel interferometry protocol to perform absolute gravimetry with a sensitivity that exceeds state of the art atom-interferometric and corner-cube gravimeters by a factor of 20. In addition, our scheme allows probing the gravitational field on a length scale eight orders of magnitude smaller than other methods.