We analytically solve the entangling quantum dynamics of two interacting Stern-Gerlach Interferometers~(SGI). Each SGI exploits an operator-valued force applied by a qubit to create and recombine a non-Gaussian state of matter. The entangling phase between the two qubits generated by the leading-order gravitational interaction of the massive degrees of freedom is found to be mass-independent, both for unitary and open dynamics, irrespective of the temperature and squeezing of the initial states. Further, we show that the solution of the four interferometric paths reveals that the mere presence of the interaction does not allow for a perfect recombination of the centre of mass. This second-order effect, alongside higher-order interaction terms, can be used to bound the mass from above and below, thus restricting the experiment's regime to mesoscopic masses. By solving the open dynamics which includes diffusion and dephasing with initial squeezed thermal states, the bounds are tightened by the inclusion of realistic experimental noise. We discuss diamagnetic levitated masses with embedded NV-centres as a specific physical implementation.
We analytically solve the entangling quantum dynamics of two interacting Stern-Gerlach Interferometers~(SGI). Each SGI exploits an operator-valued force applied by a qubit to create and recombine a non-Gaussian state of matter. The entangling phase between the two qubits generated by the leading-order gravitational interaction of the massive degrees of freedom is found to be mass-independent, both for unitary and open dynamics, irrespective of the temperature and squeezing of the initial states. Further, we show that the solution of the four interferometric paths reveals that the mere presence of the interaction does not allow for a perfect recombination of the centre of mass. This second-order effect, alongside higher-order interaction terms, can be used to bound the mass from above and below, thus restricting the experiment's regime to mesoscopic masses. By solving the open dynamics which includes diffusion and dephasing with initial squeezed thermal states, the bounds are tightened by the inclusion of realistic experimental noise. We discuss diamagnetic levitated masses with embedded NV-centres as a specific physical implementation.
Recently, there has been a proposal to test the quantum nature of gravity in the laboratory by witnessing the growth of entanglement between two masses in spatial quantum superpositions. The required superpositions can be created via Stern-Gerlach interferometers, which couple an embedded spin qubit quantum state to the spatial dynamics of each mass. The masses would entangle only if gravity is quantum in nature. Here, we generalise the experiment to an arbitrary spin j or equivalently to an ensemble of uniformly coupled spins. We first exemplify how to create a generalized Stern-Gerlach interferometer, which splits the mass into 2j+1 trajectories. This shows that a controlled protocol can be formulated to encode the amplitudes of any spin state to a spatial superposition. Secondly, two masses in spatial superpositions of the above form are left to interact via gravity, and the entanglement is computed. Different families of initial spin states are varied to find the optimal spin state that maximizes the entanglement. We conclude that larger spins can offer a modest advantage in enhancing gravity-induced entanglement.
Schrödinger cat states of levitated masses have several applications in sensing and, offer an avenue to explore the fundamental nature -- classical vs nonclassical -- of gravity, eg, through gravitationally induced entanglement (GIE). The interaction between a qubit and a levitated mass is a convenient method to create such a cat state. The size of the superpositions is limited by weak mass-qubit interactions. To overcome this limitation, we propose a protocol that exponentially expands an initially small superposition via Gaussian dynamics and successfully recombines it to complete an interferometry. An unknown force can be sensed by the superposition exponentially fast in the expansion time. The entanglement between two such interferometers interacting via a quantum force is -- for the first time in qubit-based non-Gaussian protocols -- obtained by solving the full quantum dynamics using Gaussian techniques. GIE grows exponentially, thereby making it closer to experimental feasibility. Requirements of experimental precision and decoherence are obtained.
We investigate gravitationally generated entanglement in two quantum harmonic oscillators induced by quadratic (Stelle) gravity, including corrections up to 1.5 post-Newtonian order. Starting from the quadratic action, we derive the effective two-body Hamiltonian for two harmonically trapped masses, incorporating the contributions of the massive spin-2 ghost (m2) and massive spin-0 (m0) degrees of freedom of the gravitational field. For two quantised oscillators prepared in their ground state, we compute the von Neumann and Rényi entropies of the reduced state and identify a frequency at which the gravitationally-induced entanglement vanishes due to cancellation between relativistic momentum squeezing and quantum-delocalisation-induced position squeezing. We further analyze the cancellation frequency and derive the approximate constraint m0<34m2 for the spin-2 and spin-0 modes. This relation follows from demanding a stable harmonic oscillator description. Finally, we study gravitationally-induced concurrence in a non-Gaussian setup and show how quadratic gravity modifies the entanglement generated between two spatial superpositions. The concurrence can approach O(1) for certain choices of mass, spatial superposition, particle distance, and spin-2 and spin-0 modes. The concurrence will deviate from Newtonian gravity at certain particle separations, depending on the energy of the spin-2 and spin-0 modes. For example, spin modes as low as 0.0197 eV become distinguishable from Newtonian gravity at a distance d∼40μm. This allows us to constrain the spin-2 and spin-0 masses in experiments.
Over the years, quite a few proposals have been put forward by various groups to exploit the Stern-Gerlach effect to create stable macroscopic spatial superpositions between micron-sized neutral test masses over appreciably long time scales. One such proposal put forward by Bose et al. and co-workers in 2017 uses this idea to show that two masses cannot be gravitationally entangled if not for the presence of a quantum coherent mediator. A key aspect of this approach involves the measure of the visibility of the SG-interferometer, a quantity that provides an estimate of the degree of spin coherence that is conserved over the total interferometric time after the wave-packets are combined in both, position and momentum space. A successful implementation of this idea however requires the knowledge of several experimental parameters. To this end, we present a rigorous mathematical analysis for the visibility in a general SG interferometer for non-squeezed and squeezed thermal coherent states of the Quantum harmonic oscillator. Additionally, we derive constraints on the temperature of the initially prepared wave-packet of the test mass required for both, the non-squeezed and squeezed coherent states. We show that for wave-packet split sizes of the order of microns, masses of the order of 1.0e-14 - 1.0e-15 kg can be used to realize such a proposal for time intervals as high as 0.5 seconds. Our results show that for the squeezed case, the temperatures required can be scaled up by several orders of magnitude (as opposed to the non-squeezed case) if one considers a squeezing in the momentum space of the initially prepared wave-packet.
Gravitationally induced entanglement has been proposed as a probe of the quantum nature of gravity. This work analyzes a system of two particles in harmonic traps interacting only through gravity, considering thermal and two-mode squeezed initial states. For thermal states, a maximum temperature is identified above which entanglement cannot be generated, and for fixed system parameters an optimal trap frequency that maximizes the logarithmic negativity is found. Squeezing the initial state does not further enhance the entanglement generation, but increases the temperature range over which it can be observed. Extending the analysis to general Gaussian states, an upper bound on the achievable entanglement is derived and shown to be saturated, for example, by ground and squeezed states. The results show that the amount of entanglement generated in this setup is extremely small, highlighting the experimental challenges of observing gravitationally induced quantum effects.
Gravity-induced entanglement has been proposed as a method for testing the non-classical nature of gravity via tabletop experiments. While most existing proposals are restricted to the Newtonian limit, the frame dragging effect offers access to genuinely post-Newtonian features of the gravitational interaction and remains comparatively less explored. Here, we study gravity-induced entanglement generated by frame dragging in an interferometric setting and compute the entanglement phase between the rotational degrees of freedom of a source mass and the paths of a particle in two complementary ways: (i) via Schrödinger evolution with a quantized Lense-Thirring Hamiltonian in the large angular momentum limit, and (ii) via the on-shell action of linearized quantum gravity within the stationary phase approximation. Both approaches yield the same entanglement phase, consistent with the proper time difference between the interferometer arms. The path integral derivation further reveals how gravitational retardation modifies the entanglement phase, thereby making the local, relativistically causal linearized-gravity description explicit. Under the standard locality/mediator assumptions used in existing arguments, the resulting entanglement would witness non-classicality of the gravitational interaction.