TY - JOUR
T1 - Probing quantum gravity effects with quantum mechanical oscillators
AU - Bonaldi, Michele
AU - Borrielli, Antonio
AU - Chowdhury, Avishek
AU - Di Giuseppe, Gianni
AU - Morana, Bruno
AU - Piergentili, Paolo
AU - Prodi, Giovanni A.
AU - Sarro, Pasqualina M.
AU - Serra, Enrico
AU - More Authors, null
N1 - The funding for the article is corrected to:
Open access funding provided by Universita degli Studi di Firenze within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.
The original article has been corrected.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Abstract: Phenomenological models aiming to join gravity and quantum mechanics often predict effects that are potentially measurable in refined low-energy experiments. For instance, modified commutation relations between position and momentum, that account for a minimal scale length, yield a dynamics that can be codified in additional Hamiltonian terms. When applied to the paradigmatic case of a mechanical oscillator, such terms, at the lowest order in the deformation parameter, introduce a weak intrinsic nonlinearity and, consequently, deviations from the classical trajectory. This point of view has stimulated several experimental proposals and realizations, leading to meaningful upper limits to the deformation parameter. All such experiments are based on classical mechanical oscillators, i.e., excited from a thermal state. We remark indeed that decoherence, that plays a major role in distinguishing the classical from the quantum behavior of (macroscopic) systems, is not usually included in phenomenological quantum gravity models. However, it would not be surprising if peculiar features that are predicted by considering the joined roles of gravity and quantum physics should manifest themselves just on purely quantum objects. On the basis of this consideration, we propose experiments aiming to observe possible quantum gravity effects on macroscopic mechanical oscillators that are preliminary prepared in a high purity state, and we report on the status of their realization. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
AB - Abstract: Phenomenological models aiming to join gravity and quantum mechanics often predict effects that are potentially measurable in refined low-energy experiments. For instance, modified commutation relations between position and momentum, that account for a minimal scale length, yield a dynamics that can be codified in additional Hamiltonian terms. When applied to the paradigmatic case of a mechanical oscillator, such terms, at the lowest order in the deformation parameter, introduce a weak intrinsic nonlinearity and, consequently, deviations from the classical trajectory. This point of view has stimulated several experimental proposals and realizations, leading to meaningful upper limits to the deformation parameter. All such experiments are based on classical mechanical oscillators, i.e., excited from a thermal state. We remark indeed that decoherence, that plays a major role in distinguishing the classical from the quantum behavior of (macroscopic) systems, is not usually included in phenomenological quantum gravity models. However, it would not be surprising if peculiar features that are predicted by considering the joined roles of gravity and quantum physics should manifest themselves just on purely quantum objects. On the basis of this consideration, we propose experiments aiming to observe possible quantum gravity effects on macroscopic mechanical oscillators that are preliminary prepared in a high purity state, and we report on the status of their realization. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090087574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1140/epjd/e2020-10184-6
DO - 10.1140/epjd/e2020-10184-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090087574
SN - 1434-6060
VL - 74
JO - European Physical Journal D
JF - European Physical Journal D
IS - 9
M1 - 178
ER -