Gravity Induced Quantum Entanglement: Methodologies & Noise Control

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It is still not known whether gravity is a quantum mechanical force. Although there are quite a few theories of quantum gravity, which all agree with each other in the low energy limit and are consistent with observations, there is still no empirical proof as to whether gravity is quantum. With this in mind, in this project, we will work towards refining a class of proposed experiment, which, while working in the low energy limit, can certify whether gravity is fundamentally quantum in nature. These class of experiments are based on entangling two nearby masses purely through their gravitational interaction. As a classical mediator cannot entangle two masses (can be justified in several ways), an observation of entanglement will certify gravity to be quantum. The current project will seek to(i) Create robust ways to generate superpositions of a large mass in two distinct places -- for example involving many spins embedded inside macro-objects. These will be then used to generate and evidence the gravitational entanglement.(ii) The robustness and tolerance of such schemes to environment induced decoherence will be studied and quantum control schemes will be used to enhance the robustness.(iii) Usage of additional sensors to detect and take into account the ambient noise will be formulated.