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Effects of Newtonian gravitational self-interaction in harmonically trapped quantum systems

The Schrödinger–Newton equation has gained attention in the recent past as a nonlinear modification of the Schrödinger equation due to a gravitational self-interaction. Such a modification is expected from a fundamentally semi-classical theory of gravity and can, therefore, be considered a test case...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Großardt, André, Bateman, James, Ulbricht, Hendrik, Bassi, Angelo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4973281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27488656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30840
Descripción
Sumario:The Schrödinger–Newton equation has gained attention in the recent past as a nonlinear modification of the Schrödinger equation due to a gravitational self-interaction. Such a modification is expected from a fundamentally semi-classical theory of gravity and can, therefore, be considered a test case for the necessity of the quantisation of the gravitational field. Here we provide a thorough study of the effects of the Schrödinger–Newton equation for a micron-sized sphere trapped in a harmonic oscillator potential. We discuss both the effect on the energy eigenstates and the dynamical behaviour of squeezed states, covering the experimentally relevant parameter regimes.