Related papers: On the feasibility of detecting quantum delocaliza…
The theory of relativity associates a proper time with each moving object via its world line. In quantum theory however, such well-defined trajectories are forbidden. After introducing a general characterisation of quantum clocks, we…
A proper time observable for a quantum clock is introduced and it is found that the proper time read by one clock conditioned on another clock reading a different proper time obeys classical time dilation in accordance with special…
Optical clocks based on atoms and ions probe relativistic effects with unprecedented sensitivity by resolving time dilation due to atom motion or different positions in the gravitational potential through frequency shifts. However, all…
We study the dynamical evolution of two quantum clocks interacting with a relativistic gravitational potential. We find a time dilation effect for the clocks in agreement with the gravitational time dilation as obtained from the…
Time dilation is a difference in measured time between two clocks that either move with different velocities or experience different gravitational potentials. Both of these effects stem from the theory of relativity and are usually…
At the intersection of quantum theory and relativity lies the possibility of a clock experiencing a superposition of proper times. We consider quantum clocks constructed from the internal degrees of relativistic particles that move through…
In general relativity, the picture of spacetime assigns an ideal clock to each worldline. Being ideal, gravitational effects due to these clocks are ignored and the flow of time according to one clock is not affected by the presence of…
We evaluated the accuracy limit for estimating gravitational potential using optical lattice clocks by utilizing the quantum Cram\'{e}r--Rao bound. We then compared the results for single-layer and multilayer optical lattice clocks. The…
A novel quantum time dilation effect is shown to arise when a clock moves in a quantum superposition of two relativistic velocities. This effect is argued to be measurable using existing atomic interferometry techniques, potentially…
The creation of delocalized coherent superpositions of quantum systems experiencing different relativistic effects is an important milestone in future research at the interface of gravity and quantum mechanics. This could be achieved by…
Optical lattice clocks can now resolve the height difference below 1 mm within an atomic ensemble by means of gravitational redshift with integration over sufficient amount of time. Further improvement in the stability enables the clocks to…
Atomic clocks have recently reached a fractional timing precision of $<10^{-18}$. We point out that an array of atomic clocks, distributed along the Earth's orbit around the Sun, will have the sensitivity needed to detect the time dilation…
According to relativity, the reading of an ideal clock is interpreted as the elapsed proper time along its classical trajectory through spacetime. In contrast, quantum theory allows the association of many simultaneous trajectories with a…
Quantum theory and relativity offer different conceptions of time. To explore the conflict between them, we study a quantum version of the light-clock commonly used to illustrate relativistic time dilation. This semiclassical model combines…
Improvements in atom-light coherence are foundational to progress in quantum information science, quantum optics, and precision metrology. Optical atomic clocks require local oscillators with exceptional optical coherence due to the…
General relativity predicts that clocks run more slowly near massive objects. The effect is small---a clock at sea level lags behind one 1000 m above sea level by only 9.4 ns/day. Here, we demonstrate that a measurement of this effect can…
It is expected that a quantum theory of gravity will radically alter our current notion of spacetime geometry. However, contrary to what was commonly assumed for many decades, quantum gravity effects could manifest in scales much larger…
It has recently been reported [\textit{PNAS} \textbf{114}, 2303 (2017)] that, under an operational definition of time, quantum clocks would get entangled through gravitational effects. Here we study an alternative scenario: the clocks have…
The passage of time is tracked by counting oscillations of a frequency reference, such as Earth's revolutions or swings of a pendulum. By referencing atomic transitions, frequency (and thus time) can be measured more precisely than any…
State-of-the-art atomic clocks are based on the precise detection of the energy difference between two atomic levels, measured as a quantum phase accumulated in a given time interval. Optical-lattice clocks (OLCs) now operate at or near the…