Quantum interferometric visibility as a witness of general relativistic proper time
- Author(s)
- Magdalena Zych, Fabio Michele Costa, Igor Pikovski, Caslav Brukner
- Abstract
Current attempts to probe general relativistic effects in quantum mechanics focus on precision measurements of phase shifts in matter-wave interferometry. Yet, phase shifts can always be explained as arising because of an Aharonov-Bohm effect, where a particle in a flat space-time is subject to an effective potential. Here we propose a quantum effect that cannot be explained without the general relativistic notion of proper time. We consider interference of a 'clock'-a particle with evolving internal degrees of freedom-that will not only display a phase shift, but also reduce the visibility of the interference pattern. According to general relativity, proper time flows at different rates in different regions of space-time. Therefore, because of quantum complementarity, the visibility will drop to the extent to which the path information becomes available from reading out the proper time from the 'clock'. Such a gravitationally induced decoherence would provide the first test of the genuine general relativistic notion of proper time in quantum mechanics.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Volume
- 2
- No. of pages
- 7
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1498
- Publication date
- 2011
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103026 Quantum optics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/quantum-interferometric-visibility-as-a-witness-of-general-relativistic-proper-time(4c280691-f4f7-4787-9a42-b72f03da7d64).html