Time and distance constraints for mass and charge interferometry

TL;DR

This paper refines and extends previous constraints on mass and charge interferometry, analyzing the limits of coherence and maximum separation for such experiments involving gravitational and electric fields.

Contribution

It improves existing bounds on interference coherence time and explores the maximum feasible separation between interferometers and field measurements.

Findings

Interference coherence time constraints can be doubled.

Maximum separation between interferometers and field measurements is limited by backreaction.

Extended analysis to gravitational and electric field interactions.

Abstract

We reanalyse and extend constraints on mass and charge interferometry identified by Mari et al. (2016). We show that their constraint on the time required for coherent interference can be extended by a factor of two. We extend their analysis to consider experiments in which one interferometer measures gravitational or electric fields generated by another. We note that these analyses imply a maximum separation between a mass or charge interferometer and a decohering gravitational or electric field measurement that can be carried out without backreaction.