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Certifying Macroscopic Quantum Mechanics via Hypothesis Testing with Finite Data

Quantum Physics 2026-05-25 v1

Abstract

We address the challenge of certifying quantum behavior with single macroscopic massive particles, subject to decoherence and finite data. We propose a hypothesis testing framework that distinguishes between classical and quantum mechanics based on position measurements. While interference pattern visibility in single-particle quantum superposition experiments has been commonly used as a sufficient criterion to falsify classical mechanics, we show that, from a hypothesis testing perspective, it is neither necessary nor efficient. Focusing on recent proposals to prepare macroscopic superposition states of levitated nanoparticles, we show that the likelihood ratio test -- which leverages differences across the entire probability distribution -- provides an exponential reduction in measurements needed to reach a given confidence level. These results offer a principled, efficient method to falsify classical mechanics in interference experiments, relaxing the experimental constraints faced by current efforts to test quantum mechanics at the macroscopic scale.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.22092,
  title  = {Certifying Macroscopic Quantum Mechanics via Hypothesis Testing with Finite Data},
  author = {Andreu Riera-Campeny and Patrick Maurer and Oriol Romero-Isart},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.22092},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:36:10.892Z