Bild Marius, Fadel Matteo, Yang Yu, von Lüpke Uwe, Martin Phillip, Bruno Alessandro, Chu Yiwen
Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Quantum Center, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Science. 2023 Apr 21;380(6642):274-278. doi: 10.1126/science.adf7553. Epub 2023 Apr 20.
According to quantum mechanics, a physical system can be in any linear superposition of its possible states. Although the validity of this principle is routinely validated for microscopic systems, it is still unclear why we do not observe macroscopic objects to be in superpositions of states that can be distinguished by some classical property. Here we demonstrate the preparation of a mechanical resonator in Schrödinger cat states of motion, where the ∼10 constituent atoms are in a superposition of two opposite-phase oscillations. We control the size and phase of the superpositions and investigate their decoherence dynamics. Our results offer the possibility of exploring the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds and may find applications in continuous-variable quantum information processing and metrology with mechanical resonators.
根据量子力学，一个物理系统可以处于其可能状态的任何线性叠加态。尽管这一原理对于微观系统的有效性已得到常规验证，但我们仍不清楚为何我们没有观察到宏观物体处于可通过某些经典性质区分的状态叠加之中。在此，我们展示了在运动的薛定谔猫态下制备一个机械谐振器，其中约10个组成原子处于两个反相振荡的叠加态。我们控制叠加态的大小和相位，并研究它们的退相干动力学。我们的结果为探索量子世界和经典世界之间的边界提供了可能性，并且可能在连续变量量子信息处理以及机械谐振器计量学中找到应用。
