Large quantum superpositions of a nanoparticle immersed in superfluid helium

TL;DR

This paper proposes that superfluid helium can suppress environmental decoherence for massive quantum superpositions, enabling longer coherence times and practical quantum interference experiments with nanoparticles.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that superfluid helium can serve as an environment that minimizes decoherence for immersed nanoparticles, offering an alternative to vacuum isolation.

Findings

Decoherence is suppressed in superfluid helium at zero temperature for velocities below the critical velocity.

Decoherence times can reach tens of seconds for a 10^6 amu nanoparticle delocalized over 300 nm at 1 mK.

Superfluid helium offers practical advantages like buoyancy and cooling for quantum interference experiments.

Abstract

Preparing and detecting spatially extended quantum superpositions of a massive object comprises an important fundamental test of quantum theory. These quantum states are extremely fragile and tend to quickly decay into incoherent mixtures due to the environmental decoherence. Experimental setups considered up to date address this threat in a conceptually straightforward way -- by eliminating the environment, i.e. by isolating an object in a sufficiently high vacuum. We show that another option exists: decoherence is suppressed in the presence of a strongly interacting environment if this environment is superfluid. Indeed, as long as an object immersed in a pure superfluid at zero temperature moves with a velocity below the critical one, it does not create, absorb or scatter any excitations of the superfluid. Hence, in this idealized situations the decoherence is absent. In reality the decoherence will be present due to thermal excitations of the superfluid and impurities contaminating the superfluid. We examine various decoherence channels in the superfluid $^4$He. It is shown that the total decoherence time can be as large as tens of seconds for a $10^6$ amu nanoparticle delocalized over $300$ nm in helium at $1$ mK. Performing interference experiments in superfluid helium can provide certain practical advantages compared to conventional schemes, e.g. compensation of gravity by the buoyancy force and effective cooling.