Table-top nanodiamond interferometer enabling quantum gravity tests

TL;DR

This paper proposes a practical, table-top nanodiamond interferometer that could facilitate quantum gravity tests by using mesoscopic quantum superpositions and electromagnetic fields, making experiments more feasible and resource-efficient.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanodiamond-based interferometer design that simplifies quantum gravity testing compared to previous free-fall schemes.

Findings

Feasibility of nanodiamond interferometer for quantum gravity tests

Utilizes electromagnetic fields instead of free-fall methods

Reuses massive quantum probes to enhance practicality

Abstract

Unifying quantum theory and general relativity is the holy grail of contemporary physics. Nonetheless, the lack of experimental evidence driving this process led to a plethora of mathematical models with a substantial impossibility of discriminating among them or even establishing if gravity really needs to be quantized or if, vice versa, quantum mechanics must be "gravitized" at some scale. Recently, it has been proposed that the observation of the generation of entanglement by gravitational interaction, could represent a breakthrough demonstrating the quantum nature of gravity. A few experimental proposals have been advanced in this sense, but the extreme technological requirements (e.g., the need for free-falling gravitationally-interacting masses in a quantum superposition state) make their implementation still far ahead. Here we present a feasibility study for a table-top nanodiamond-based interferometer eventually enabling easier and less resource-demanding quantum gravity tests. With respect to the aforementioned proposals, by relying on quantum superpositions of steady massive (mesoscopic) objects our interferometer may allow exploiting just small-range electromagnetic fields (much easier to implement and control) and, at the same time, the re-utilization of the massive quantum probes exploited, inevitably lost in free-falling interferometric schemes.