English

Quantum gravitational contrast in creating Schr\"odinger cat state

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-05-07 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we illustrate how a Schr\"odinger cat state created via a matter-wave interferometer can be viewed as the simplest quantum-gravity setup where we can treat both matter and gravity on an equal footing at a perturbative level. Here we treat Einstein's theory of general relativity using an effective field theory approach, quantising the massless spin-2 graviton in the presence of a quantum spatial superposition of matter that creates a matter-wave interferometer in the non-relativistic limit. We show that due to the matter-graviton coupling the graviton vacuum is displaced analogous to the coherent state. We study the contrast/overlap between the coherent states of the left and right superpositions in the matter-wave interferometer. We also study the entanglement between matter and the graviton in this setup and relate it to a gravitational contrast, or the overlap of the quantum geometries led by the coherent states. In the appendix, we provide an example of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator and study the contrast/overlap of such coherent states of the graviton.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.05153,
  title  = {Quantum gravitational contrast in creating Schr\"odinger cat state},
  author = {Anupam Mazumdar and Tian Zhou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.05153},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

9 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:53:14.260Z