Sudden Decoherence by Resonant Particle Excitation for Testing Gravity-Induced Entanglement

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to detect gravity-induced entanglement by observing sudden decoherence caused by resonant particle excitation in a quantum system, with potential experimental applications in optomechanics.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel approach to test gravity-induced entanglement through resonance-based particle excitation and decoherence detection, offering a new experimental pathway.

Findings

Resonant particle excitation can serve as a signature of gravity-induced entanglement.

The probability of excitation increases linearly with repeated experiments.

Experimental implementation using optomechanics is discussed.

Abstract

We propose a novel method to probe gravity-induced entanglement. We consider the gravitational interaction between a particle trapped in a shallow potential and a harmonic oscillator. The harmonic oscillator is in a quantum superposition of two frequencies and only one of these states can excite the trapped particle via resonance. Once the excited particle is detected, the quantum state of the oscillator is collapsed, which can be observed as the sudden disappearance of the superposition of oscillator frequencies. Thus, the sudden decoherence, which is only triggered by particle detection, can be a smoking gun evidence of gravity-induced entanglement. Since the probability of particle excitation increases linearly with time, the total probability is multiplied by repeating experiments. We will also discuss experimental implementations using optomechanics.