论文标题
16微图机械振荡器的Schrödinger猫状态
Schrödinger cat states of a 16-microgram mechanical oscillator
论文作者
论文摘要
叠加原则是量子力学最基本的原理之一。根据Schrödinger方程，物理系统可以处于其可能状态的任何线性组合中。尽管该原理的有效性经常在微观系统中验证，但仍不清楚为什么我们不观察到宏观对象是在可以通过某些经典特性区分的状态叠加中。在这里，我们证明了在Schrödinger猫运动状态中的机械谐振器的有效质量为16.2微克的制备，其中组成原子与两个相反相位的振荡叠加。我们显示了对叠加的大小和相位的控制，并研究了这些状态的破坏动力学。除了在量子和古典世界之间的边界上脱落光之外，我们的结果对量子技术也很感兴趣，因为它们为与机械谐振器的连续变量量子信息处理和量子计量学铺平了道路。
The superposition principle is one of the most fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. According to the Schrödinger equation, a physical system can be in any linear combination of its possible states. While the validity of this principle is routinely validated for microscopic systems, it is still unclear why we do not observe macroscopic objects to be in superpositions of states that can be distinguished by some classical property. Here we demonstrate the preparation of a mechanical resonator with an effective mass of 16.2 micrograms in Schrödinger cat states of motion, where the constituent atoms are in a superposition of oscillating with two opposite phases. We show control over the size and phase of the superposition and investigate the decoherence dynamics of these states. Apart from shedding light at the boundary between the quantum and the classical world, our results are of interest for quantum technologies, as they pave the way towards continuous-variable quantum information processing and quantum metrology with mechanical resonators.
