Approaching the motional ground state of a 10 kg object
Abstract
The motion of a mechanical object -- even a human-sized object -- should be governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. Coaxing them into a quantum state is, however, difficult: the thermal environment masks any quantum signature of the object's motion. Indeed, the thermal environment also masks effects of proposed modifications of quantum mechanics at large mass scales. We prepare the center-of-mass motion of a 10 kg mechanical oscillator in a state with an average phonon occupation of 10.8. The reduction in temperature, from room temperature to 77 nK, is commensurate with an 11 orders-of-magnitude suppression of quantum back-action by feedback -- and a 13 orders-of-magnitude increase in the mass of an object prepared close to its motional ground state. This begets the possibility of probing gravity on massive quantum systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2102.12665,
title = {Approaching the motional ground state of a 10 kg object},
author = {Chris Whittle and Evan D. Hall and Sheila Dwyer and Nergis Mavalvala and Vivishek Sudhir and R. Abbott and A. Ananyeva and C. Austin and L. Barsotti and J. Betzwieser and C. D. Blair and A. F. Brooks and D. D. Brown and A. Buikema and C. Cahillane and J. C. Driggers and A. Effler and A. Fernandez-Galiana and P. Fritschel and V. V. Frolov and T. Hardwick and M. Kasprzack and K. Kawabe and N. Kijbunchoo and J. S. Kissel and G. L. Mansell and F. Matichard and L. McCuller and T. McRae and A. Mullavey and A. Pele and R. M. S. Schofield and D. Sigg and M. Tse and G. Vajente and D. C. Vander-Hyde and Hang Yu and Haocun Yu and C. Adams and R. X. Adhikari and S. Appert and K. Arai and J. S. Areeda and Y. Asali and S. M. Aston and A. M. Baer and M. Ball and S. W. Ballmer and S. Banagiri and D. Barker and J. Bartlett and B. K. Berger and D. Bhattacharjee and G. Billingsley and S. Biscans and R. M. Blair and N. Bode and P. Booker and R. Bork and A. Bramley and K. C. Cannon and X. Chen and A. A. Ciobanu and F. Clara and C. M. Compton and S. J. Cooper and K. R. Corley and S. T. Countryman and P. B. Covas and D. C. Coyne and L. E. H. Datrier and D. Davis and C. Di Fronzo and K. L. Dooley and P. Dupej and T. Etzel and M. Evans and T. M. Evans and J. Feicht and P. Fulda and M. Fyffe and J. A. Giaime and K. D. Giardina and P. Godwin and E. Goetz and S. Gras and C. Gray and R. Gray and A. C. Green and E. K. Gustafson and R. Gustafson and J. Hanks and J. Hanson and R. K. Hasskew and M. C. Heintze and A. F. Helmling-Cornell and N. A. Holland and J. D. Jones and S. Kandhasamy and S. Karki and P. J. King and Rahul Kumar and M. Landry and B. B. Lane and B. Lantz and M. Laxen and Y. K. Lecoeuche and J. Leviton and J. Liu and M. Lormand and A. P. Lundgren and R. Macas and M. MacInnis and D. M. Macleod and S. Márka and Z. Márka and D. V. Martynov and K. Mason and T. J. Massinger and R. McCarthy and D. E. McClelland and S. McCormick and J. McIver and G. Mendell and K. Merfeld and E. L. Merilh and F. Meylahn and T. Mistry and R. Mittleman and G. Moreno and C. M. Mow-Lowry and S. Mozzon and T. J. N. Nelson and P. Nguyen and L. K. Nuttall and J. Oberling and Richard J. Oram and C. Osthelder and D. J. Ottaway and H. Overmier and J. R. Palamos and W. Parker and E. Payne and R. Penhorwood and C. J. Perez and M. Pirello and H. Radkins and K. E. Ramirez and J. W. Richardson and K. Riles and N. A. Robertson and J. G. Rollins and C. L. Romel and J. H. Romie and M. P. Ross and K. Ryan and T. Sadecki and E. J. Sanchez and L. E. Sanchez and T. R. Saravanan and R. L. Savage and D. Schaetzl and R. Schnabel and E. Schwartz and D. Sellers and T. Shaffer and B. J. J. Slagmolen and J. R. Smith and S. Soni and B. Sorazu and A. P. Spencer and K. A. Strain and L. Sun and M. J. Szczepańczyk and M. Thomas and P. Thomas and K. A. Thorne and K. Toland and C. I. Torrie and G. Traylor and A. L. Urban and G. Valdes and P. J. Veitch and K. Venkateswara and G. Venugopalan and A. D. Viets and T. Vo and C. Vorvick and M. Wade and R. L. Ward and J. Warner and B. Weaver and R. Weiss and B. Willke and C. C. Wipf and L. Xiao and H. Yamamoto and L. Zhang and M. E. Zucker and J. Zweizig},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.12665},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
published version containing minor changes