Experimental test of photonic entanglement in accelerated reference frames.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28489082.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15304 and PMC identifier 5436216.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The unification of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics is a long-standing challenge in contemporary physics. Experimental techniques in quantum optics have only recently reached the maturity required for the investigation of quantum systems under the influence of non-inertial motion, such as being held at rest in gravitational fields, or subjected to uniform accelerations. Here, we report on experiments in which a genuine quantum state of an entangled photon pair is exposed to a series of different accelerations. We measure an entanglement witness for g-values ranging from 30 mg to up to 30 g-under free-fall as well on a spinning centrifuge-and have thus derived an upper bound on the effects of uniform acceleration on photonic entanglement.