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arXiv:1608.08254 · Physical Review Letters

Comment on “Matter-Wave Interferometry of a Levitated Thermal Nano-Oscillator Induced and Probed by a Spin”

F. Robicheaux

Published Mar 10, 2017• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this comment, we agree with the formulas derived in Refs. [1,2] but show that the results are not due to "interference between spatially separated states of the center of mass of a mesoscopic harmonic oscillator".
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.118.108901

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The superposition principle is one of the bizarre predictions of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, it has been experimentally verified using electrons, photons, atoms, and molecules. In this article, using a 20 20~20 nm levitated ferromagnetic FePt nanoparticle, an exotic all optical spin polarization technique and the matter-wave interferometry, we show that a mesoscopic spatial Schrodinger cat can be created. Additionally, we argue that the maximum spatial separation between the delocalized wavepackets can be 25 μm25~μm25 μm and is significantly larger than the object itself.
We propose an interferometric scheme based on an untrapped nano-object subjected to gravity. The motion of the center of mass (c.m.) of the free object is coupled to its internal spin system magnetically, and a free flight scheme is developed based on coherent spin control. The wave packet of the test object, under a spin-dependent force, may then be delocalized to a macroscopic scale. A gravity induced dynamical phase (accrued solely on the spin state, and measured through a Ramsey scheme) is used to reveal the above spatially delocalized superposition of the spin-nano-object composite system that arises during our scheme. We find a remarkable immunity to the motional noise in the c.m. (initially in a thermal state with moderate cooling), and also a dynamical decoupling nature of the scheme itself. Together they secure a high visibility of the resulting Ramsey fringes. The mass independence of our scheme makes it viable for a nano-object selected from an ensemble with a high mass variability. Given these advantages, a quantum superposition with a 100 nm spatial separation for a massive object of 10^{9} amu is achievable experimentally, providing a route to test postulated modifications of quantum theory such as continuous spontaneous localization.