Does universality of free-fall apply to the motion of quantum probes?

8th International Workshop DICE2016: Spacetime - Matter - Quantum Mechanics

物理学;力学

Seveso, Luigi^1 ; Peri, Valerio^1,2 ; Paris, Matteo G. A.^1,3

Quantum Technology Lab, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano

I-20133, Italy^1

Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich, Zürich

8093, Switzerland^2

INFN, Sezione di Milano, Milano

I-20133, Italy^3

关键词: Free fall;    Mass sensing;    Quantum mechanical particles;    Quantum probe;    Spacetime;    Weak equivalence principle;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/880/1/012067/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/880/1/012067

学科分类：力学，机械学

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Can quantum-mechanical particles propagating on a fixed spacetime background be approximated as test bodies satisfying the weak equivalence principle? We ultimately answer the question in the negative but find that, when universality of free-fall is assessed locally, a nontrivial agreement between quantum mechanics and the weak equivalence principle exists. Implications for mass sensing by quantum probes are discussed in some details.