Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object
Name
2102.12665.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.28 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1648f18ec5b82e1d69c98f28b56aa380
Author(s)
Whittle, Chris
Hall, Evan D.
Dwyer, Sheila
Mavalvala, Nergis
Sudhir, Vivishek
Abbott, R.
Ananyeva, A.
Austin, C.
Barsotti, L.
Betzwieser, J.
Date Issued
June 18, 2021
Journal
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Whittle, Chris, Hall, Evan D., Dwyer, Sheila, Mavalvala, Nergis, Sudhir, Vivishek et al. 2021. "Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object." Science, 372 (6548).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The motion of a mechanical object, even a human-sized object, should be governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. Coaxing them into a quantum state is, however, difficult because the thermal environment masks any quantum signature of the object’s motion. The thermal environment also masks the effects of proposed modifications of quantum mechanics at large mass scales. We prepared the center-of-mass motion of a 10-kilogram mechanical oscillator in a state with an average phonon occupation of 10.8. The reduction in temperature, from room temperature to 77 nanokelvin, is commensurate with an 11 orders-of-magnitude suppression of quantum back-action by feedback and a 13 orders-of-magnitude increase in the mass of an object prepared close to its motional ground state. Our approach will enable the possibility of probing gravity on massive quantum systems.
MIT Department
LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abh2634
