Quantum-gravity effects could in principle be witnessed in neutrino-like oscillations

Abstract

Two of us (Marletto and Vedral 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett . 119 240402) recently showed how the quantum character of a physical system, in particular the gravitational field, can in principle be witnessed without directly measuring observables of that system, solely by its ability to mediate entanglement between two other systems. Here we propose a variant of that scheme, where the entanglement is again generated via gravitational interaction, but now between two particles both at sharp locations (very close to each other) but each in a superposition of two different masses. We discuss an in principle example using two hypothetical massive, neutral, weakly-interacting particles generated in a superposition of different masses. The key property of such particles would be that, like neutrinos, they are affected only by weak nuclear interactions and gravity.

Keywords

• quantum entanglement
• quantum gravity
• quantum information