Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background
We study matter-wave interferometry in the presence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. It is shown that if the background has a scale-invariant spectrum over a wide bandwidth (which is expected in a class of inflationary models of Big Bang cosmology), then separated-path interference...
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| Format: | Journal article |
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Elsevier
2017
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| _version_ | 1826283892858945536 |
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| author | Steane, A |
| author_facet | Steane, A |
| author_sort | Steane, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | We study matter-wave interferometry in the presence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. It is shown that if the background has a scale-invariant spectrum over a wide bandwidth (which is expected in a class of inflationary models of Big Bang cosmology), then separated-path interference cannot be observed for a lump of matter of size above a limit which is very insensitive to the strength and bandwidth of the fluctuations, unless the interferometer is servo-controlled or otherwise protected. For ordinary solid matter this limit is of order 1–10 mm. A servo-controlled or cross-correlated device would also exhibit limits to the observation of macroscopic interference, which we estimate for ordinary matter moving at speeds small compared to c. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:05:40Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:8b4022eb-dba3-44da-b5a0-96101ba8e593 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:05:40Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:8b4022eb-dba3-44da-b5a0-96101ba8e5932022-03-26T22:36:53ZMatter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave backgroundJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8b4022eb-dba3-44da-b5a0-96101ba8e593Symplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2017Steane, AWe study matter-wave interferometry in the presence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. It is shown that if the background has a scale-invariant spectrum over a wide bandwidth (which is expected in a class of inflationary models of Big Bang cosmology), then separated-path interference cannot be observed for a lump of matter of size above a limit which is very insensitive to the strength and bandwidth of the fluctuations, unless the interferometer is servo-controlled or otherwise protected. For ordinary solid matter this limit is of order 1–10 mm. A servo-controlled or cross-correlated device would also exhibit limits to the observation of macroscopic interference, which we estimate for ordinary matter moving at speeds small compared to c. |
| spellingShingle | Steane, A Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title | Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title_full | Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title_fullStr | Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title_full_unstemmed | Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title_short | Matter-wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| title_sort | matter wave coherence limit owing to cosmic gravitational wave background |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT steanea matterwavecoherencelimitowingtocosmicgravitationalwavebackground |