Related papers: Optomechanical Schr\"odinger Cats - a Case for Spa…
Recent developments in space technology like micro-propulsion systems for drag-free control, thermal shielding, ultra-stable laser sources and stable optical cavities set an ideal platform for quantum optomechanical experiments with…
Rapid experimental progress has recently allowed the use of light to prepare macroscopic mechanical objects into nearly pure quantum states. This research field of quantum optomechanics opens new doors toward testing quantum mechanics, and…
The most striking feature of quantum mechanics is the existence of superposition states, where an object appears to be in different situations at the same time. The existence of such states has been tested with small objects, like atoms,…
Optical "Schr\"odinger cat" states, the non-classical superposition of two quasi-classical coherent states, serve as a basis for gedanken experiments testing quantum physics on mesoscopic scales and are increasingly recognized as a resource…
The search for experimental demonstrations of the quantum behavior of macroscopic mechanical resonators is a fastly growing field of investigation and recent results suggest that the generation of quantum states of resonators with a mass at…
The quantum superposition principle is a cornerstone of physics and at the heart of many quantum technologies. Yet, it is still often regarded counterintuitive because we do not observe its key features on the macroscopic scales of our…
We review the emerging field of optomechanics, where the radiation pressure of light circulating inside an optical cavity is employed to cool, manipulate and read out micro- and nanomechanical oscillators. These systems display a rich…
Superpositions of macroscopically distinct quantum states, introduced in Schroedinger's famous Gedankenexperiment, are an epitome of quantum "strangeness" and a natural tool for determining the validity limits of quantum physics. The…
The investigation of macroscopic quantum phenomena is a current active area of research that offers significant promise to advance the forefronts of both fundamental and applied quantum science. Utilizing the exquisite precision and control…
In many experiments isolated atoms and ions have been inserted into high-finesse optical resonators for the study of fundamental quantum optics and quantum information. Here, we introduce another application of such a system, as the…
We propose a scheme to engineer Schr\"{o}dinger-cat states of propagating optical pulses. Multi-dimensional and multi-partite cat states can be generated simply by reflecting coherent optical pulses successively from a single-atom cavity.…
We propose a method to generate an optical Schr\"odinger-cat-like state in a cavity in a substantial decoherence regime. Even when the cavity decay rate is considerably large, a cat-like state can be generated in a laser-like setting if the…
We review the field of cavity optomechanics, which explores the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and nano- or micromechanical motion. This review covers the basics of optical cavities and mechanical resonators, their mutual…
We apply the many-particle Schr\"{o}dinger-Newton equation, which describes the co-evolution of an many-particle quantum wave function and a classical space-time geometry, to macroscopic mechanical objects. By averaging over motions of the…
We show that optomechanical systems can test the Schr\"{o}dinger-Newton equation of gravitational quantum mechanics due to Yang et al. This equation is motivated by semiclassical gravity, a widely used theory of interacting gravitational…
Cavity optomechanics is a tool to study the interaction between light and micromechanical motion. Here we observe near-quantum limited optomechanical physics in a truly macroscopic oscillator. As the mechanical system, we use a mm-sized…
Parallel worlds are imaginative ideas in quantum mechanics and cosmology. The superpositions of parallel worlds are novel states of quantum gravity and have no classical correspondences generally. In this letter, we investigate the…
An interferometric experiment is described that characterizes an optical cat state in a cavity mode. Our method describes how to measure the amplitude and phase of the different coherent states that make up the cat states. We show that…
A Schr\"odinger-cat state is a coherent superposition of macroscopically distinguishable quantum states, in quantum optics usually realized as superposition of coherent states. Protocols to prepare photonic cats have been presented for…
Massive objects in spatial superposition may provide insights into the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity. Cold atomic interferometers offer a promising platform due to extended matter-wave coherence times and precise…