Abstract
The traditional view from particle physics is that quantum-gravity effects should become detectable only at extremely high energies and small length scales. Owing to the significant technological challenges involved, there has been limited progress in identifying experimentally detectable effects that can be accessed in the foreseeable future. However, in recent decades the size and mass of quantum systems that can be controlled in the laboratory have reached unprecedented scales, enabled by advances in ground-state cooling and quantum-control techniques. Preparations of massive systems in quantum states pave the way for the explorations of a low-energy regime in which gravity can be both sourced and probed by quantum systems. Such approaches constitute an increasingly viable alternative to accelerator-based, laser-interferometric, torsion-balance, and cosmological tests of gravity. In this review an overview of proposals where massive quantum systems act as interfaces between quantum mechanics and gravity is provided. Conceptual difficulties in the theoretical description of quantum systems in the presence of gravity are discussed, tools for modeling massive quantum systems in the laboratory are reviewed, and an overview of the current state-of-the-art experimental landscape is provided. Proposals covered in this review include precision tests of gravity, tests of gravitationally induced wave-function collapse and decoherence, and gravity-mediated entanglement. The review concludes with an outlook and summary of the key questions raised.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 015003 |
| Journal | Reviews of Modern Physics |
| Volume | 97 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2025 |
Funding
We thank Angelo Bassi, Miles P. Blencowe, Caslav Brukner, and Gary Steele for the fruitful discussions. We thank Gerard Higgins and Onus Hosten for their help with compiling data for Fig. . We also thank Jack Clarke, Flaminia Giacomini, Simon Haine, Klaus Hornberger, Nathan Inan, Jie Li, Eduardo Martin-Martinez, Anupam Mazumdar, Julian Pedernales, Igor Pikovski, Martin Plenio, Liu Qui, Tejinder Singh, Michael Tobar, Witlef Wieczorek, and Magdalena Zych for their helpful comments. We acknowledge the EPSRC International Quantum Technologies Network (Grant No. EP/W02683X/1) Levitation Network for Advanced Quantum Technologies for their support. This collaboration began as the U.K. Optomechanics Research Network (UniKORN) online seminar series (2020\u20132022). We thank all speakers, panel members, and audience participants who contributed to the seminars, which inspired us to write this review. I.\u2009F. thanks Eugene Jhong, John Moussouris, Jussi Westergren, and the Emmy Network for support and research funding and acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust project MONDMag (Grant No. RPG-2022-57). A.\u2009A.\u2009G. is supported in part by NSF Grants No. PHY-2110524 and No. PHY-2111544, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the W.\u2009M. Keck Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and ONR Grant No. N00014-18-1-2370. M.\u2009R. acknowledges funding from the EPSRC via Grants No. EP/N031105/1, No. EP/S000267/1, No. EP/W029626/1, and No. EP/S021582/1 and the STFC via Grant No. ST/W006170/1. S.\u2009Q. is funded in part by the Wallenberg Initiative on Networks and Quantum Information (WINQ) and in part by the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Action IF program Nonlinear Optomechanics for Verification, Utility, and Sensing (NOVUS) Grant No. 101027183. Nordita is supported in part by NordForsk. M.\u2009T. acknowledges funding from the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RPG-2020-197). H.\u2009U. acknowledges support from the QuantERA grant LEMAQUME, funded by the QuantERA II ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies implemented within the EU Horizon 2020 program, from the U.K. funding agency EPSRC (Grants No. EP/W007444/1, No. EP/V035975/1, No. EP/V000624/1, and No. EP/X009491/1), the Leverhulme Trust project MONDMag (Grant No. RPG-2022-57), the EU Horizon 2020 FET-Open project TeQ (Grant No. 766900), the EU Horizon Europe EIC Pathfinder project QuCoM (Grant No. 10032223), and the European Space Agency for the ESA Payload Masters project Op-To-Space, as well as the U.K. Space Agency for the IBF project A3S. C.\u2009C.\u2009W. acknowledges funding from the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, EPSRC (Grant No. EP/R513180/1), and the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 732894 (FET-Proactive HOT). S.\u2009M.\u2009K. acknowledges funding from the ERC via Grant Agreement No. 818751. M.\u2009T. acknowledges funding from the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) under Contracts No. N1-0392, No. P1-0416, and No. SNZRD/ 22-27/0510 (RSUL Toro\u0161). The work of S.\u2009B. and A.\u2009A.\u2009G is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. GBMF12328. This material is based upon work of S.\u2009B. and A.\u2009A.\u2009G. supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation under Grant No. G-2023-21130. We thank Angelo Bassi, Miles P. Blencowe, Caslav Brukner, and Gary Steele for the fruitful discussions. We thank Gerard Higgins and Onus Hosten for their help with compiling data for Fig. 7. We also thank Jack Clarke, Flaminia Giacomini, Simon Haine, Klaus Hornberger, Nathan Inan, Jie Li, Eduardo Martin-Martinez, Anupam Mazumdar, Julian Pedernales, Igor Pikovski, Martin Plenio, Liu Qui, Tejinder Singh, Michael Tobar, Witlef Wieczorek, and Magdalena Zych for their helpful comments. We acknowledge the EPSRC International Quantum Technologies Network (Grant No. EP/W02683X/1) Levitation Network for Advanced Quantum Technologies for their support. This collaboration began as the U.K. Optomechanics Research Network (UniKORN) online seminar series (2020\u20132022). We thank all speakers, panel members, and audience participants who contributed to the seminars, which inspired us to write this review. I.F. thanks Eugene Jhong, John Moussouris, Jussi Westergren, and the Emmy Network for support and research funding and acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust project MONDMag (Grant No. RPG-2022-57). A.A.G. is supported in part by NSF Grants No. PHY-2110524 and No. PHY-2111544, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and ONR Grant No. N00014-18-1-2370. M.R. acknowledges funding from the EPSRC via Grants No. EP/N031105/1, No. EP/S000267/1, No. EP/W029626/1, and No. EP/S021582/1 and the STFC via Grant No. ST/W006170/1. S.Q. is funded in part by the Wallenberg Initiative on Networks and Quantum Information (WINQ) and in part by the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Action IF program Nonlinear Optomechanics for Verification, Utility, and Sensing (NOVUS) Grant No. 101027183. Nordita is supported in part by NordForsk. M.T. acknowledges funding from the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RPG-2020-197). H.U. acknowledges support from the QuantERA grant LEMAQUME, funded by the QuantERA II ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies implemented within the EU Horizon 2020 program, from the U.K. funding agency EPSRC (Grants No. EP/W007444/1, No. EP/V035975/1, No. EP/V000624/1, and No. EP/X009491/1), the Leverhulme Trust project MONDMag (Grant No. RPG-2022-57), the EU Horizon 2020 FET-Open project TeQ (Grant No. 766900), the EU Horizon Europe EIC Pathfinder project QuCoM (Grant No. 10032223), and the European Space Agency for the ESA Payload Masters project Op-To-Space, as well as the U.K. Space Agency for the IBF project A3S. C.C.W. acknowledges funding from the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability, EPSRC (Grant No. EP/R513180/1), and the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 732894 (FET-Proactive HOT). S.M.K. acknowledges funding from the ERC via Grant Agreement No. 818751. M.T. acknowledges funding from the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) under Contracts No. N1-0392, No. P1-0416, and No. SNZRD/ 22-27/0510 (RSUL Toro\u0161). The work of S.B. and A.A.G is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. GBMF12328. This material is based upon work of S.B. and A.A.G. supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation under Grant No. G-2023-21130.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy