Gravity-induced Entanglement under Constrained Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper shows that gravity-induced entanglement can be observed in systems with constrained dynamics, not just free-fall setups, by analyzing phase accumulation and corrections in such systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that gravity-induced entanglement protocols are feasible in constrained dynamical systems, relaxing experimental constraints compared to free-fall schemes.

Findings

Deviations from free-fall phase are of order (t/T)^2

Correction to entangling phase remains below 10^{-6} in realistic regimes

Constrained systems like carbon nanotube pendula can still produce observable entanglement

Abstract

Tests of gravity-induced entanglement have been proposed as a route to probing the quantum nature of gravity, but existing schemes rely on free-fall interferometry of massive spatial superpositions, imposing severe experimental constraints. We show that systems exhibiting effectively inertial dynamics in the short-time regime reproduce the same gravitational phase accumulation responsible for entanglement generation. Deviations from the free-fall phase enter at order $(t/T)^2$, where $t$ is the interferometer timescale and $T$ is the characteristic period of the constrained motion. We analyse a representative mechanically constrained implementation using carbon nanotube pendula and show that the resulting correction to the entangling phase remains below $10^{-6}$ in experimentally relevant regimes, leading to a negligible modification of the interference visibility used to certify entanglement. These results demonstrate that gravity-induced entanglement protocols extend beyond free-fall implementations to a broader class of constrained dynamical systems, significantly relaxing the requirements for experimental realisation of the Bose-Marletto-Vedral protocol.