Space QUEST mission proposal: experimentally testing decoherence due to gravity

作者：Joshi Siddarth Koduru^*; Pienaar Jacques; Ralph Timothy C; Cacciapuoti Luigi; McCutcheon Will; Rarity John; Giggenbach Dirk; Lim Jin Gyu; Makarov Vadim; Fuentes Ivette; Scheidl Thomas; Beckert Erik; Bourennane Mohamed; Bruschi David Edward; Cabello Adam; Capmany Jose; Carrasco Casado Alberto; Diamanti Eleni; Dusek Miloslav; Elser Dominique; Gulinatti Angelo; Hadfield Robert H; Jennewein Thomas; Kaltenbaek Rainer; Krainak Michael A; Lo Hoi Kwong; Marquardt Christoph

来源：New Journal of Physics, 2018, 20(6): 063016.

DOI：10.1088/1367-2630/aac58b

• gravitational decoherence
• quantum communication
• entanglement
• satellite
• relativity
• quantum mechanics

Models of quantum systems on curved space-times lack sufficient experimental verification. Some speculative theories suggest that quantum correlations, such as entanglement, may exhibit different behavior to purely classical correlations in curved space. By measuring this effect or lack thereof, we can test the hypotheses behind several such models. For instance, as predicted by Ralph et al [5] and Ralph and Pienaar [1], a bipartite entangled system could decohere if each particle traversed through a different gravitational field gradient. We propose to study this effect in a ground to space uplink scenario. We extend the above theoretical predictions of Ralph and coworkers and discuss the scientific consequences of detecting/failing to detect the predicted gravitational decoherence. We present a detailed mission design of the European Space Agency's Space QUEST (Space-Quantum Entanglement Space Test) mission, and study the feasibility of the mission scheme.

• 出版日期2018-6-12