Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Test of Causal Non-Linear Quantum Mechanics by Ramsey Interferometry on the Vibrational Mode of a Trapped Ion

Presenting Author: Joseph Broz, University of California Berkeley
Contributing Author(s): Bingran You, Sumanta Khan, Hartmut Haeffner, David E. Kaplan, Surjeet Rajendran

Kaplan and Rajendran have recently demonstrated that non-linear and state-dependent terms can be consistently added to quantum field theory to yield causal non-linear time evolution in quantum mechanics. Causal non-linear theories have the unavoidable feature that their quantum effects are dramatically sensitive to the full physical spread of the quantum state of the system. As a result, such theories are not well tested by conventional atomic and nuclear spectroscopy. By using a well-controlled superposition of vibrational modes of a 40Ca+ ion trapped in a harmonic potential, we set a stringent limit of 5.4×10−12 on the magnitude of the unitless scaling factor ϵ̃γ for the predicted causal, non-linear perturbation.

Read this article online: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2206.12976

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm)