Probing quantum gravity effects with quantum mechanical oscillators

Abstract: Phenomenological models aiming to join gravity and quantum mechanics often predict effects that are potentially measurable in refined low-energy experiments. For instance, modified commutation relations between position and momentum, that account for a minimal scale length, yield a dynamics that can be codified in additional...

Quantum Signature of a Squeezed Mechanical Oscillator

Recent optomechanical experiments have observed nonclassical properties in macroscopic mechanical oscillators. A key indicator of such properties is the asymmetry in the strength of the motional sidebands produced in the probe electromagnetic field, which is originated by the noncommutativity between the oscillator ladder operators. Here we...

Quantum motion of a squeezed mechanical oscillator attained via an optomechanical experiment

We experimentally investigate a mechanical squeezed state realized in a parametrically modulated membrane resonator embedded in an optical cavity. We demonstrate that a quantum characteristic of the squeezed dynamics can be revealed and quantified even in a moderately warm oscillator, through the analysis of motional sidebands. We provide a...

Calibrated quantum thermometry in cavity optomechanics

Cavity optomechanics has achieved the major breakthrough of the preparation and observation of macroscopic mechanical oscillators in non-classical states. The development of reliable indicators of the oscillator properties in these conditions is important also for applications to quantum technologies. We compare two procedures to infer the...

Quantum thermometry in optomechanics

We describe a method to control the cavity detuning in optomechanics experiments. This helps accurate measurements of the asymmetry in the motional sidebands, that testify the quantum behavior of the oscillator and quantifies its occupation number.