We investigate the relation between quantum nonlocality and gravity at the astrophysical scale, both in the classical and quantum regimes. Considering a gedanken experiment involving particle pairs orbiting in the strong gravitational field of ultra-compact objects, we find that the violation of Bell inequality acquires an angular modulation factor that strongly depends on the nature of the gravitational source. We show how such gravitationally-induced modulation of quantum nonlocality readily discriminates between black holes (both classical and inclusive of quantum corrections) and string fuzzballs, i.e., the true quantum description of ultra-compact objects according to string theory. These findings promote Bell nonlocality as a potentially key tool in putting quantum gravity to the test.
We investigate the relation between quantum nonlocality and gravity at the astrophysical scale, both in the classical and quantum regimes. Considering a gedanken experiment involving particle pairs orbiting in the strong gravitational field of ultra-compact objects, we find that the violation of Bell inequality acquires an angular modulation factor that strongly depends on the nature of the gravitational source. We show how such gravitationally-induced modulation of quantum nonlocality readily discriminates between black holes (both classical and inclusive of quantum corrections) and string fuzzballs, i.e., the true quantum description of ultra-compact objects according to string theory. These findings promote Bell nonlocality as a potentially key tool in putting quantum gravity to the test.
The inclusion of gravitation within the framework of quantum theory remains one of the most prominent open problem in physics. To date, the absence of empirical evidence hampers conclusions regarding the fundamental nature of gravity -- whether it adheres to quantum principles or remains a classical field manifests solely in the macroscopic domain. This article presents a though experiment aimed at discerning the quantum signature of gravity through the lens of macroscopic nonlocality. The experiment integrates a standard Bell test with a classical Cavendish experiment. We illustrate that the measurement apparatuses employed in a Bell experiment, despite lacking entanglement, defy classical descriptions; their statistical behaviors resist explanations through local hidden variable models. Extending this argument to encompass the massive objects in the Cavendish experiment allows for further disputing classical models of the gravitational field. Under favorable conditions and in light of corroborating evidence from the recent loophole-free Bell experiments, the quantum character of gravity is essentially substantiated.
We propose an experiment to test Bell nonlocality, a genuine nonclassicality, for the gravitational field. Two masses with embedded entangled spins (e.g., two diamonds with their NV-centre spins entangled) are placed well outside each other's light cones, ensuring a locality-loophole-free scenario. The spins are then coupled to the motion of their respective masses to generate spatial superpositions. Finally, local measurements are performed only on the gravitational fields of the two masses. If gravity is quantum, then the two entangled masses would entangle their gravitational fields, leading to correlations certifying Bell nonlocality of gravity. Trapped and ground-state cooled nano-objects with micron-sized spatial superposition are sufficient for this test. This goes beyond the recent proposals to test nonclassicality of gravity by providing, for the first time in the literature, a minimal tool to (i) create Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state of gravitational curvatures, (ii) witness entangled gravitational curvatures, (iii) rule out any local-realist description of gravity, and (iv) achieve a loophole-free test of gravity's nonclassicality in a fully device-independent way.
Belenchia et al. [Phys. Rev. D 98, 126009 (2018)] have analyzed a gedankenexperiment where two observers, Alice and Bob, attempt to communicate via superluminal signals using a superposition of massive particles dressed by Newtonian fields and a test particle as field detector. Quantum fluctuations in the particle motion and in the field prevent signaling or violations of quantum mechanics in this setup. We reformulate this thought experiment by considering gravitational waves emitted by an extended quadrupolar object as a detector for Newtonian tidal fields. We find that quantum fluctuations in the gravitational waves prevent signaling. In the Newtonian limit, rotating black holes behave as extended quadrupolar objects, as consequence of the strong equivalence principle. It follows that consistency of the Newtonian limit of general relativity with quantum mechanics requires the quantization of gravitational radiation, even when the waves originate in strong gravity sources.
Gravity-induced entanglement (GIE) experiments have been proposed as a theory-independent test of the quantum nature of gravity, on the strength of several no-go theorems concluding that GIE detection implies the gravitational interaction is either nonlocal or nonclassical. This is in apparent tension with a growing number of papers claiming that theories with a classical gravitational field do predict GIE. This article resolves the tension by reviewing the assumptions of the no-go theorems and highlighting the information-theoretic, rather than spatiotemporal, nature of the locality assumption. This makes violating locality not particularly problematic. Indeed, quantum electrodynamics and perturbative quantum gravity are nonlocal in the sense of the theorems. Thus, simple detection GIE is not sufficient to rule out a classical gravitational field and we will need quantitative comparison of theoretical predictions in the low-energy quantum gravity regime to test whether the gravitational field is quantum or classical.
Several phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity predict the existence of a minimal measurable length and/or a maximum measurable momentum near the Planck scale. When embedded into the framework of quantum mechanics, such constraints induce a modification of the canonical commutation relations and thus a generalization of the Heisenberg uncertainty relations, commonly referred to as generalized uncertainty principle (GUP). Different models of quantum gravity imply different forms of the GUP. For instance, in the framework of string theory the GUP is quadratic in the momentum operator, while in the context of doubly special relativity it includes an additional linear dependence. Among the possible physical consequences, it was recently shown that the quadratic GUP induces a universal decoherence mechanism, provided one assumes a foamy structure of quantum spacetime close to the Planck length. Along this line, in the present work we investigate the gravitational decoherence associated to the linear-quadratic GUP and we compare it with the one associated to the quadratic GUP. We find that, despite their similarities, the two generalizations of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle yield decoherence times that are completely uncorrelated and significantly distinct. Motivated by this result, we introduce a theoretical and experimental scheme based on cavity optomechanics to measure the different time evolution of nonlocal quantum correlations corresponding to the two aforementioned decoherence mechanisms. We find that the deviation between the two predictions occurs on time scales that are macroscopic and thus potentially amenable to experimental verification. This scenario provides a possible setting to discriminate between different forms of the GUP and therefore different models of quantum gravity.
This study explores quantum effects in weak gravitational fields with the aim of identifying feasible pathways towards tabletop tests of quantum gravity. Using numerical simulations of matter-wave interference for nanoparticles with masses between and kg, we investigate how environmental and fundamental decoherence mechanisms shape observable signatures. The results reveal a mass-dependent reduction in interference visibility, dropping from near unity at kg to below 0.2 at kg. Coherence times were found to exceed one second for particles lighter than 10^(-16) kg under cryogenic ultra-high-vacuum conditions, but decreased to sub-millisecond scales for kg particles at room temperature, confirming thermal radiation as the dominant source of decoherence. In parallel, collapse models such as CSL predict additional suppression of visibility for interrogation times of 0.1 s, particularly for masses above kg, enabling discrimination between environmental and intrinsic decoherence mechanisms. These findings underscore the necessity of maintaining ultra-high vacuum and cryogenic environments to detect gravitationally induced quantum phases, thereby providing a practical framework for near-future interferometry experiments. While the present work is limited to phenomenological models and simulated data, it establishes a roadmap for extending investigations to heavier mass regimes, incorporating realistic noise sources, and testing alternative collapse scenarios.