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SUMMARY:Quantum reference frames: a relational perspective on nonclassical
  spacetime - Flaminia Giacomini\, ETH Zurich
DTSTART:20230202T141500Z
DTEND:20230202T151500Z
UID:TALK196000@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Damian Pitalua-Garcia
DESCRIPTION:Understanding the fundamental nature of gravity at the interfa
 ce with quantum theory is a major open question in theoretical physics. Re
 cently\, the study of gravitating quantum systems\, namely quantum systems
  sourcing a gravitational field and interacting gravitationally\, has attr
 acted a lot of attention\, thanks to the possibility of realising these sc
 enarios in the laboratory in the near future. When a quantum system source
 s a gravitational field\, spacetime is fundamentally nonclassical. In this
  situation\, also the notion of a reference frame needs to be generalised 
 to account for quantum features of spacetime\, thus realising a quantum re
 ference frame (QRF).\n\nIn this talk\, I will introduce a formalism to ass
 ociate a QRF to the quantum state of a particle\, and argue that QRFs can 
 contribute to formulate physics on nonclassical spacetime\, e.g. by genera
 lising the covariance of physical laws and the Equivalence Principle. I wi
 ll then discuss a recent atom-interferometric experiment [Overstreet\, Ase
 nbaum\, Curti\, Kim\, Kasevich\, Science\, 375 (6577) 2022] from the persp
 ective of different QRFs. Under some additional assumptions\, among which 
 the validity of physical laws in all QRFs\, this experiment is equivalent 
 to one in which the source of the gravitational field is in a quantum supe
 rposition.
LOCATION:MR2
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