Abstract

A theoretical framework for the quantization of gravity has been an elusive Holy Grail since the birth of quantum theory and general relativity. While generations of scientists have attempted to find solutions to this deep riddle, an alternative path built upon the idea that experimental evidence could determine whether gravity is quantized has been decades in the making. The possibility of an experimental answer to the question of the quantization of gravity is of renewed interest in the era of gravitational wave detectors. We review and investigate an important subset of phenomenological quantum gravity, detecting quantum signatures of weak gravitational fields in table-top experiments and interferometers.

Highlights

  • Constructing a theory that unifies quantum mechanics (QM) and general relativity (GR) has been a nearly century-long effort that continues to this day

  • The Marletto and Vedral (MV) argument can be generalized and used to devise another method for detecting the quantum mechanical nature of gravity: let A and B be quantum mechanical matter systems while C describes the gravitational field; if AB only interacts via gravity and one can detect the appearance of entanglement, this would imply that the gravitational field must be quantized

  • We reviewed the recent progress in detecting the quantum nature of weak gravitational fields

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Summary

Introduction

Constructing a theory that unifies quantum mechanics (QM) and general relativity (GR) has been a nearly century-long effort that continues to this day. Perhaps as a consequence of the enormous difficulty of this endeavor, the critical role that experimental physics could play in the field of quantum gravity was realized early on—a role of increasing interest with the first observations of gravitational waves (GWs) in 2015 [1–4]. From 2016 and onward, an increase in the already widespread interest in detecting signatures of quantum gravity was seen in a growing number of new (or renewed) experimental solutions including those—such as interferometers—that could detect possible weak signals in the already weak realm of GW. Recent proposals in phenomenological quantum gravity range from quantum gravity in electromagnetic cavities [23], quantum gravity in gravitational wave detectors [24,25], quantum table-top experiments in the lab [26], quantum gravity induced quantum entanglement [27] to interferometers with rotational sensitivity [28,29], and those sensitive to quantum spacetime geometry [30,31] (for conjectured holographic quantum geometry effects), to name but a few. We begin by defining the approach and scope of the experimental proposals we review in this work

Quantum Gravity Regimes
The Search for Signals of the Quantization of Gravity
Entanglement and Decoherence
The Quantum Gravitational Hamiltonian of Ligo
Quantum Signatures of Gravitational Waves
Conclusions

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