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An ultra-narrow line width levitated nano-oscillator for testing dissipative wavefunction collapse

Pontin, A; Bullier, NP; Toroš, M; Barker, PF; (2020) An ultra-narrow line width levitated nano-oscillator for testing dissipative wavefunction collapse. Physical Review Research , 2 (2) , Article 023349. 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023349. Green open access

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Abstract

Levitated nano-oscillators are promising platforms for testing fundamental physics and quantum mechanics in a new high mass regime. Levitation allows extreme isolation from the environment, reducing the decoherence processes that are crucial for these sensitive experiments. A fundamental property of any oscillator is its linewidth and mechanical quality factor Q . Narrow linewidths in the microhertz regime and mechanical Q 's as high as 10 12 have been predicted for levitated systems. The insufficient long-term stability of these oscillators has prevented direct measurement in high vacuum. Here we report on the measurement of an ultranarrow linewidth levitated nano-oscillator, whose width of 81 ± 23 μ Hz is only limited by residual gas pressure at high vacuum despite residual variations of the trapping potential. This narrow linewidth allows us to put new experimental bounds on dissipative models of wave-function collapse including continuous spontaneous localization and Diósi-Penrose and illustrates its utility for future precision experiments that aim to test the macroscopic limits of quantum mechanics.

Type: Article
Title: An ultra-narrow line width levitated nano-oscillator for testing dissipative wavefunction collapse
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023349
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023349
Additional information: Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10105287
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