Space QUEST mission proposal: Experimentally testing decoherence due to gravity
Siddarth Koduru Joshi
,
Jacques Pienaar
(1)
,
Timothy C. Ralph
(2)
,
Luigi Cacciapuoti
(3)
,
Will Mccutcheon
,
John Rarity
(4)
,
Dirk Giggenbach
,
Vadim Makarov
,
Ivette Fuentes
,
Thomas Scheidl
,
Erik Beckert
(5)
,
Mohamed Bourennane
,
David Edward Bruschi
,
Adán Cabello
(6)
,
Jose Capmany
,
José A. Carrasco
,
Alberto Carrasco-Casado
,
Eleni Diamanti
(7)
,
Miloslav Duusek
,
Dominique Elser
,
Angelo Gulinatti
(8)
,
Robert H. Hadfield
,
Thomas Jennewein
(2)
,
Rainer Kaltenbaek
(9)
,
Michael A. Krainak
,
Hoi-Kwong Lo
,
Christoph Marquardt
(10)
,
Gerard Milburn
,
Momtchil Peev
,
Andreas Poppe
,
Valerio Pruneri
(11)
,
Renato Renner
,
Christophe Salomon
(12)
,
Johannes Skaar
,
Nikolaos Solomos
,
Mario Stipčević
,
Juan P. Torres
,
Morio Toyoshima
(13)
,
Paolo Villoresi
,
Ian A. Walmsley
(14)
,
Gregor Weihs
,
Harald Weinfurter
,
Anton Zeilinger
(15)
,
Marek Żukowski
,
Rupert Ursin
(16)
1
Google Inc.
2 Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Computer Technology
3 ESA - Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency
4 University of Bristol [Bristol]
5 Fraunhofer IOF - Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering [Jena]
6 CETaqua
7 QI - Information Quantique [LIP6]
8 POLIMI - Politecnico di Milano [Milan]
9 Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology
10 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light
11 ICFO - Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques [Castelldefels]
12 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
13 NICT - National Institute of Information and Communications Technology [Tokyo]
14 Clarendon Laboratory [Oxford]
15 Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
16 IQOQI - Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
2 Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Computer Technology
3 ESA - Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency
4 University of Bristol [Bristol]
5 Fraunhofer IOF - Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering [Jena]
6 CETaqua
7 QI - Information Quantique [LIP6]
8 POLIMI - Politecnico di Milano [Milan]
9 Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology
10 Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light
11 ICFO - Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques [Castelldefels]
12 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
13 NICT - National Institute of Information and Communications Technology [Tokyo]
14 Clarendon Laboratory [Oxford]
15 Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
16 IQOQI - Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
Siddarth Koduru Joshi
- Function : Author
Will Mccutcheon
- Function : Author
Dirk Giggenbach
- Function : Author
Vadim Makarov
- Function : Author
Ivette Fuentes
- Function : Author
Thomas Scheidl
- Function : Author
Mohamed Bourennane
- Function : Author
David Edward Bruschi
- Function : Author
Jose Capmany
- Function : Author
José A. Carrasco
- Function : Author
Alberto Carrasco-Casado
- Function : Author
Eleni Diamanti
- Function : Author
- PersonId : 742380
- IdHAL : eleni-diamanti
- ORCID : 0000-0003-1795-5711
- IdRef : 181781034
Miloslav Duusek
- Function : Author
Dominique Elser
- Function : Author
Robert H. Hadfield
- Function : Author
Michael A. Krainak
- Function : Author
Hoi-Kwong Lo
- Function : Author
Gerard Milburn
- Function : Author
Momtchil Peev
- Function : Author
Andreas Poppe
- Function : Author
Renato Renner
- Function : Author
Johannes Skaar
- Function : Author
Nikolaos Solomos
- Function : Author
Mario Stipčević
- Function : Author
Juan P. Torres
- Function : Author
Paolo Villoresi
- Function : Author
Gregor Weihs
- Function : Author
Harald Weinfurter
- Function : Author
Marek Żukowski
- Function : Author
Abstract
Models of quantum systems on curved space-times lack sufficient experimental verification. Some speculative theories suggest that quantum properties, such as entanglement, may exhibit entirely different behavior to purely classical systems. By measuring this effect or lack thereof, we can test the hypotheses behind several such models. For instance, as predicted by Ralph and coworkers [T C Ralph, G J Milburn, and T Downes, Phys. Rev. A, 79(2):22121, 2009, T C Ralph and J Pienaar, New Journal of Physics, 16(8):85008, 2014], a bipartite entangled system could decohere if each particle traversed through a different gravitational field gradient. We propose to study this effect in a ground to space uplink scenario. We extend the above theoretical predictions of Ralph and coworkers and discuss the scientific consequences of detecting/failing to detect the predicted gravitational decoherence. We present a detailed mission design of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space QUEST (Space - Quantum Entanglement Space Test) mission, and study the feasibility of the mission schema.