SGER: Exploratory Research into Producing Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This SGER award is to allow the investigator to conduct preliminary experiments to test the feasibility of a scheme for creating quantum superposition states involving a very large number of atoms via the interaction of a single photon with a tiny mirror. Such quantum superpositions will be more massive than any quantum superpositions observed to date and will therefore provide fundamental tests of quantum mechanics in an entirely new regime. If successful, the results of this effort could lead to a larger scale project that has spin-off to a broad range of applications in that arena where the behavior of systems, even macroscopic systems, is dominated by quantum behavior.