Bose S, Mazumdar A, Schut M, Toroš M. Entanglement Witness for the Weak Equivalence Principle.
ENTROPY (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023;
25:448. [PMID:
36981336 PMCID:
PMC10047996 DOI:
10.3390/e25030448]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The Einstein equivalence principle is based on the equality of gravitational and inertial mass, which has led to the universality of a free-fall concept. The principle has been extremely well tested so far and has been tested with a great precision. However, all these tests and the corresponding arguments are based on a classical setup where the notion of position and velocity of the mass is associated with a classical value as opposed to the quantum entities.Here, we provide a simple quantum protocol based on creating large spatial superposition states in a laboratory to test the quantum regime of the equivalence principle where both matter and gravity are treated at par as a quantum entity. The two gravitational masses of the two spatial superpositions source the gravitational potential for each other. We argue that such a quantum protocol is unique with regard to testing especially the generalisation of the weak equivalence principle by constraining the equality of gravitational and inertial mass via witnessing quantum entanglement.
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