One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface

Agafonova, Sofya; Rosello, Pere; Mekonnen, Manuel; Hosten, Onur

One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface

Agafonova S, Rosello P, Mekonnen M, Hosten O. One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface. arXiv, 2408.09445.

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https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445 [Preprint]

DOI

10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445

Preprint | Submitted | English

Author

Agafonova, Sofia^ISTA ; Rosello, Pere; Mekonnen, Manuel; Hosten, Onur^ISTA

Corresponding author has ISTA affiliation

Department

Graduate School
Hosten Group

Grant

A quantum hybrid of atoms and milligram-scale pendulums: towards gravitational quantum mechanics

Abstract

Probing the possibility of entanglement generation through gravity offers a path to tackle the question of whether gravitational fields possess a quantum mechanical nature. A potential realization necessitates systems with low-frequency dynamics at an optimal mass scale, for which the microgram-to-milligram range is a strong contender. Here, after refining a figure-of-merit for the problem, we present a 1-milligram torsional pendulum operating at 18 Hz. We demonstrate laser cooling its motion from room temperature to 240~microkelvins, surpassing by over 20-fold the coldest motions attained for oscillators ranging from micrograms to kilograms. We quantify and contrast the utility of the current approach with other platforms. The achieved performance and large improvement potential highlight milligram-scale torsional pendulums as a powerful platform for precision measurements relevant to future studies at the quantum-gravity interface.

Publishing Year

2024

Date Published

2024-08-18

Journal Title

arXiv

Acknowledgement

We thank Gerard Higgins, Andrei Militaru, Nikolai Kiesel and Markus Aspelmeyer for useful discussions on the topic of the figure-of-merit. We thank Teodor Strömberg for helping with the additional characterizations of the optical lever noise. We thank Johannes Fink and Scott Waitukaitis for their helpful feedback on the manuscript. This work was supported by Institute of Science and Technology Austria, and the European Research Council under Grant No. 101087907 (ERC CoG QuHAMP).

Article Number

2408.09445

IST-REx-ID

20840

Cite this

Agafonova S, Rosello P, Mekonnen M, Hosten O. One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface. arXiv. doi:10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445

Agafonova, S., Rosello, P., Mekonnen, M., & Hosten, O. (n.d.). One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445

Agafonova, Sofia, Pere Rosello, Manuel Mekonnen, and Onur Hosten. “One-Milligram Torsional Pendulum toward Experiments at the Quantum-Gravity Interface.” ArXiv, n.d. https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445.

S. Agafonova, P. Rosello, M. Mekonnen, and O. Hosten, “One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface,” arXiv. .

Agafonova S, Rosello P, Mekonnen M, Hosten O. One-milligram torsional pendulum toward experiments at the quantum-gravity interface. arXiv, 2408.09445.

Agafonova, Sofia, et al. “One-Milligram Torsional Pendulum toward Experiments at the Quantum-Gravity Interface.” ArXiv, 2408.09445, doi:10.48550/ARXIV.2408.09445.

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