Stern-Gerlach Interferometry for Tests of Quantum Gravity and General Applications
A Corrigendum on
Stern-Gerlach interferometry for tests of quantum gravity and general applications
by Lokare Y (2022). Front. Phys. 10:785125. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2022.785125
In the original article, two references were not cited. These are as follows:
20. Marshman RJ, Mazumdar A, Bose S. Locality and entanglement in table-top testing of the quantum nature of linearized gravity. Phys Rev A (Coll Park) (2020) 101:052110. doi:10.1103/physreva.101.052110
21. Bose S, Mazumdar A, Schut M, Toros M. Mechanism for the quantum natured gravitons to entangle masses. Phys Rev D (2022) 105:106028. doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.106028
The citations appearing as Ref. [20] and Ref. [21] in the reference list, respectively) have now been inserted in Section 4: Entanglement dynamics in the density matrix formalism.
Additionally, there was a mistake in the original article relating to a reference (i.e., Ref. [18] in the original article) which has now been withdrawn from arXiv. Previously this was listed as:
18. Lokare Y. A complete analysis of spin coherence in the full-loop stern-gerlach interferometer using non-squeezed and squeezed coherent states of the quantum harmonic oscillator (2021).
The original article referenced and discussed results appearing in Ref. [18]. Section 5, Paragraphs 1-6 and equations 22-26 have now been removed and the section rewritten. This section now reads:
“In principle, it is possible to realize full-loop Stern-Gerlach interferometers using pure Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). A possible arrangement is to have a BEC initially confined within a harmonic trap, which is then released and probed in a Stern-Gerlach interferometric setup. To this end, we consider one such case, as proposed and/or analyzed in Ref. [22]. We work under the crude assumption that interactions between atoms in the BEC are effectively negligible, in light of which the analysis will simply reduce to the single-particle limit. Note here that a rapid free expansion of the BEC post-release is being assumed. The wave-packet of a BEC satisfies the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, as follows
where the Hamiltonian HMF(t) in the mean-field approximation assumes the form
where δz denotes the width of the initially prepared Gaussian wave-packet. The one-dimensional scaling factor assumes the form
and
where m is the mass of the atoms in the BEC,
The integral in Eq. 27 is a standard Gaussian integral, simplifying which we get
where δpz denotes the initial momentum uncertainty in the initially prepared BEC wave-packet (note: the Gaussian wave-packet is a minimum uncertainty state that saturates the uncertainty principle, for which δz δpz = ℏ/2). From Eqs 25, 26, 28, one can deduce an approximate closed-form expression for ϕBEC.
To maximize the Stern-Gerlach interference signal strength, Eq. 28 suggests that the following conditions must hold1
and
A more robust analysis is however in order, for the following reasons. In an experimental setup, it is quite possible that the initial BEC wave-packet might not assume a Gaussian profile, in light of which Eqs. 27, 28 would not be sufficient to quantify the interference signal strength. Moreover, analyzing the model in the single-particle limit yields only approximate results1. It is in fact, necessary to consider a full quantum many-body treatment of a trapped impure BEC (i.e., by incorporating finite-temperature effects), which from an experimental point of view, seems more reasonable. Experimental realizations of the kind described here have already been reported in the literature. Ref. [23] for instance, reports the realization of a high stability Stern-Gerlach spatial fringe interferometer with pure BECs.
Using heavy neutral test masses instead of atomic clouds is another viable, yet formidable approach1. It is worth bearing in mind however that such an experiment would demand a delicate balance between several experimental parameters. A more realistic implementation of such a setup (more specifically, the quantification of the Stern-Gerlach interference signal strength) will have to take into account the effects of the field gradient present in the x − y plane (per Maxwell’s equations), in addition to the one applied along z1. This warrants a 2D analysis of such a setup [14]. In recent years, there have been attempts to address some of these issues. Marshman et al. not long ago analyzed a numerical model of a slightly modified version of an SG interferometric setup [24] by including the effects of the field gradient in the x − y plane (in addition to the one already existing along the z direction). Furthermore, they consider field gradients of intermediate strengths and the effect of the diamagnetic properties of the test mass in their analysis. Their results demonstrate that the introduction of a gradient-free region (see Ref. [24] for more details) along the wave-packet trajectories can facilitate the acceleration of micron-sized test masses in the interferometric setup, which in turn can help one realize more efficient splitting between the individual wave-packets.
Considering the above correction, Eq. 33 appearing in Section 6 of the original article is re-labelled to Eq. 31.
In addition, Refs. [20] and [97] appearing in the original article have now been published in peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, their journal references have been added and now read as follows:
20. Japha Y. Unified model of matter-wave-packet evolution and application to spatial coherence of atom interferometers. Phys Rev A (Coll Park) (2021) 104:053310. doi:10.1103/physreva.104.053310
24. Marshman RJ, Mazumdar A, Folman R, Bose S. Constructing nano-object quantum superpositions with a Stern-Gerlach interferometer. Phys Rev Res (2022) 4:023087. doi:10.1103/physrevresearch.4.023087
Finally, the Acknowledgments have been modified to better reflect the contributions of Prof. A. Mazumdar and Prof. S. Bose. The updated statement reads:
“The author YL would like to express his gratitude to his former mentors, A. Mazumdar and S. Bose, with whom he has had several useful and/or insightful discussions on matter-wave interferometry and related areas (in particular, realizing quantum gravity tests using Stern-Gerlach interferometry).”
The author apologizes for this error and states that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.
Footnotes
1Bose S, Mazumdar A. Private Communication. (2021).
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Keywords: Stern-Gerlach interferometry, matter-wave interferometers, entanglement entropy, density matrix, interference signal, precision sensing, quantum metrology
Citation: Lokare Y (2022) Corrigendum: Stern-Gerlach interferometry for tests of quantum gravity and general applications. Front. Phys. 10:1026111. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2022.1026111
Received: 23 August 2022; Accepted: 14 September 2022;
Published: 14 November 2022.
Edited and reviewed by:
Lin Chen, Beihang University, ChinaCopyright © 2022 Lokare. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Yash Lokare, cGgxMTgwODU3QGlpdGQuYWMuaW4=