Mesoscopic Mechanical Resonators as Quantum Non-Inertial Reference Frames
Abstract
An atom attached to a micrometer-scale wire that is vibrating at a frequency of 100 MHz and with displacement amplitude 1 nm experiences an acceleration magnitude 10^9 ms^-2, approaching the surface gravity of a neutron star. As one application of such extreme non-inertial forces in a mesoscopic setting, we consider a model two-path atom interferometer with one path consisting of the 100 MHz vibrating wire atom guide. The vibrating wire guide serves as a non-inertial reference frame and induces an in principle measurable phase shift in the wave function of an atom traversing the wire frame. We furthermore consider the effect on the two-path atom wave interference when the vibrating wire is modeled as a quantum object, hence functioning as a quantum non-inertial reference frame. We outline a possible realization of the vibrating wire, atom interferometer using a superfluid helium quantum interference setup.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1409.2137,
title = {Mesoscopic Mechanical Resonators as Quantum Non-Inertial Reference Frames},
author = {B. N. Katz and M. P. Blencowe and K. C. Schwab},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.2137},
year = {2015}
}
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