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Experimental prospects for detecting the quantum nature of spacetime

dc.contributor.authorCorona Ugalde, Paulina
dc.date.accessioned2017-09-21T15:36:39Z
dc.date.available2017-09-21T15:36:39Z
dc.date.issued2017-09-21
dc.date.submitted2017
dc.description.abstractThis thesis is concerned with advancing the confrontation between relativistic quantum information (RQI) and experiment. We investigate the lessons that some present-day experiments can teach us about the relationship between quantum information, relativistic motion and gravitation. First, we look at the insights we can gain within the framework of quantum field theory in curved spacetimes. Particularly, we propose a generalization of the superconducting circuit simulation of the dynamical Casimir effect where we consider relativistically moving boundary conditions following different trajectories. We study the feasibility of extending the experimental setup to reproduce richer relativistic trajectories. Next, motivated by recent efforts to describe the gravitational interaction as a classical channel arising from continuous quantum measurements, we study what types of dynamics can emerge from a collisional model of repeated interactions between a system and a set of ancillae. We use these results in the context of gravitational interactions and show how our general framework recovers the gravitational decoherence model of Kafri, Taylor and Milburn (KTM). Finally, we argue that single-atom interference experiments achieving large spatial superpositions can rule out a particular realization of the KTM model where gravitational interactions act pairwise between massive particles as classical channels, approximating Newtonian pair-potential at low energies. Our findings counteract the present belief that gravity-inspired decoherence models cannot be confronted by experiment. Specifically, we find experimental indications which show that if gravity does reduce to pairwise Newtonian interactions between atoms in a non-relativistic limit, these interactions cannot be fundamentally classical. Our work shows that state-of-the-art technology can be used as a tool to test the quantum character of spacetime and that further efforts should be spent in analyzing how current experimental setups can guide us towards building a complete theory of quantum gravity.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/12420
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalse
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterlooen
dc.subjectCasimir effecten
dc.subjectquantum electrodynamicsen
dc.subjectUnruh effecten
dc.subjectgravitational decoherenceen
dc.subjectopen quantum systemsen
dc.subjectquantum measurementen
dc.subjectgravitational testsen
dc.subjectcontinuous quantum iteractionsen
dc.subjectdynamical Casimir effecten
dc.subjectsuperconducting circuitsen
dc.subjectquantum field theory in curved spacetimesen
dc.subjectrelativistic quantum informationen
dc.subjectrelativistic motionen
dc.subjectcontinuous quantum measurementen
dc.subjectquantum informationen
dc.titleExperimental prospects for detecting the quantum nature of spacetimeen
dc.typeDoctoral Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeDoctor of Philosophyen
uws-etd.degree.departmentPhysics and Astronomyen
uws-etd.degree.disciplinePhysicsen
uws-etd.degree.grantorUniversity of Waterlooen
uws.contributor.advisorMann, Robert
uws.contributor.affiliation1Faculty of Scienceen
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.published.cityWaterlooen
uws.published.countryCanadaen
uws.published.provinceOntarioen
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

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