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Published October 4, 2019 | Version Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Satellite testing of a gravitationally induced quantum decoherence model

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Science and Technology of China
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology
  • 4. ROR icon National Taiwan Normal University

Abstract

Quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity are two pillars of modern physics. However, a coherent unified framework of the two theories still remains an open problem. Attempts to quantize general relativity have led to many rival models of quantum gravity, which, however, generally lack experimental foundations. We report a quantum optical experimental test of event formalism of quantum fields, a theory which attempts to present a coherent description of quantum fields in exotic spacetimes containing closed timelike curves and ordinary spacetime. We experimentally test a prediction of the theory with the quantum satellite Micius that a pair of time-energy entangled particles probabilistically decorrelate passing through different regions of the gravitational potential of Earth. Our measurement results are consistent with the standard quantum theory and hence do not support the prediction of event formalism.

Additional Information

© 2019 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 1 July 2019; accepted 6 September 2019. Published online 19 September 2019. We thank colleagues at the National Space Science Center, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, China Xi'an Satellite Control Center, National Astronomical Observatories, and Ngari Observatory for their management and coordination. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Author contributions: J.F., C.-Z.P., and J.-W.P. conceived the research. P.X., J.-G.R., J.F., C.-Z.P., and J.-W.P. designed the experiment. P.X., J.-G.R., H.-L.Y., X.H., H.-N.W., W.-Y.W., S.-K.L., J.Y., W.-Q.C., L.L., N.-L.L., Y.-A.C., and C.-Y.L. conducted the experiment. H.-L.Y., W.-Y.L., W.-Q.C., F.-Z.L., and M.Y. developed the software. Y.M., T.R., F.L., Y.C., and J.F. performed the theoretical study. P.X., Y.M., T.C.R., Y.C., J.F., C.-Z.P., and J.-W.P. analyzed the data and prepared the manuscript. All authors contributed to data collection, discussed the results, and reviewed the manuscript. J.-W.P. supervised the whole project. The authors declare no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data are available in the manuscript or the supplementary materials. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.F., C.-Z.P. and J.-W.P.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
98780
DOI
10.1126/science.aay5820
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190920-140523203

Related works

Describes
10.1126/science.aay5820 (DOI)

Funding

Chinese Academy of Sciences
National Natural Science Foundation of China

Dates

Created
2019-09-20
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Updated
2021-11-16
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TAPIR , Astronomy Department