Testing Wavefunction Collapse Models using Parametric Heating of a Trapped Nanosphere

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental method using a trapped nanosphere to test collapse models like CSL by measuring parametric heating, potentially probing very low CSL parameter values within seconds.

Contribution

It introduces a feasible experimental setup combining Paul trapping and optical cooling to test collapse models through nanosphere heating measurements.

Findings

CSL-induced heating can be isolated from environmental noise.

The method can test CSL parameters as low as 10^{-12} Hz.

Measurement timescales are reduced to seconds.

Abstract

We propose a mechanism for testing the theory of collapse models such as continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) by examining the parametric heating rate of a trapped nanosphere. The random localizations of the centre-of-mass for a given particle predicted by the CSL model can be understood as a stochastic force embodying a source of heating for the nanosphere. We show that by utilising a Paul trap to levitate the particle and optical cooling, it is possible to reduce environmental decoherence to such a level that CSL dominates the dynamics and contributes the main source of heating. We show that this approach allows measurements to be made on the timescale of seconds, and that the free parameter $\lambda_{\rm CSL}$ which characterises the model ought to be testable to values as low as $10^{-12}$ Hz.