Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object

Chris Whittle¹, Evan D Hall¹, Sheila Dwyer², Nergis Mavalvala¹, Vivishek Sudhir^{3

4}, R Abbott⁵, A Ananyeva⁵, C Austin⁶, L Barsotti¹, J Betzwieser⁷, C D Blair^{7

8}, A F Brooks⁵, D D Brown⁹, A Buikema¹, C Cahillane⁵, J C Driggers², A Effler⁷, A Fernandez-Galiana¹, P Fritschel¹, V V Frolov⁷, T Hardwick⁶, M Kasprzack⁵, K Kawabe², N Kijbunchoo¹⁰, J S Kissel², G L Mansell^{1

2}, F Matichard^{1

5}, L McCuller¹, T McRae¹⁰, A Mullavey⁷, A Pele⁷, R M S Schofield¹¹, D Sigg², M Tse¹, G Vajente⁵, D C Vander-Hyde¹², Hang Yu¹, Haocun Yu¹, C Adams⁷, R X Adhikari⁵, S Appert⁵, K Arai⁵, J S Areeda¹³, Y Asali¹⁴, S M Aston⁷, A M Baer¹⁵, M Ball¹¹, S W Ballmer¹², S Banagiri¹⁶, D Barker², J Bartlett², B K Berger¹⁷, D Bhattacharjee¹⁸, G Billingsley⁵, S Biscans^{1

5}, R M Blair², N Bode^{19

20}, P Booker^{19

20}, R Bork⁵, A Bramley⁷, K C Cannon²¹, X Chen⁸, A A Ciobanu⁹, F Clara², C M Compton², S J Cooper²², K R Corley¹⁴, S T Countryman¹⁴, P B Covas²³, D C Coyne⁵, L E H Datrier²⁴, D Davis¹², C Di Fronzo²², K L Dooley^{25

26}, P Dupej²⁴, T Etzel⁵, M Evans¹, T M Evans⁷, J Feicht⁵, P Fulda²⁷, M Fyffe⁷, J A Giaime^{6

7}, K D Giardina⁷, P Godwin²⁸, E Goetz^{6

18

29}, S Gras¹, C Gray², R Gray²⁴, A C Green²⁷, E K Gustafson⁵, R Gustafson³⁰, J Hanks², J Hanson⁷, R K Hasskew⁷, M C Heintze⁷, A F Helmling-Cornell¹¹, N A Holland¹⁰, J D Jones², S Kandhasamy³¹, S Karki¹¹, P J King², Rahul Kumar², M Landry², B B Lane¹, B Lantz¹⁷, M Laxen⁷, Y K Lecoeuche²⁹, J Leviton³⁰, J Liu^{19

20}, M Lormand⁷, A P Lundgren³², R Macas²⁵, M MacInnis¹, D M Macleod²⁵, S Márka¹⁴, Z Márka¹⁴, D V Martynov²², K Mason¹, T J Massinger¹, R McCarthy², D E McClelland¹⁰, S McCormick⁷, J McIver^{5

29}, G Mendell², K Merfeld¹¹, E L Merilh², F Meylahn^{19

20}, T Mistry³³, R Mittleman¹, G Moreno², C M Mow-Lowry²², S Mozzon³², T J N Nelson⁷, P Nguyen¹¹, L K Nuttall³², J Oberling², Richard J Oram⁷, C Osthelder⁵, D J Ottaway⁹, H Overmier⁷, J R Palamos¹¹, W Parker^{7

34}, E Payne³⁵, R Penhorwood³⁰, C J Perez², M Pirello², H Radkins², K E Ramirez³⁶, J W Richardson⁵, K Riles³⁰, N A Robertson^{5

24}, J G Rollins⁵, C L Romel², J H Romie⁷, M P Ross³⁷, K Ryan², T Sadecki², E J Sanchez⁵, L E Sanchez⁵, T R Saravanan³¹, R L Savage², D Schaetz⁵, R Schnabel³⁸, E Schwartz⁷, D Sellers⁷, T Shaffer², B J J Slagmolen¹⁰, J R Smith¹³, S Soni⁶, B Sorazu²⁴, A P Spencer²⁴, K A Strain²⁴, L Sun^{5

10}, M J Szczepańczyk²⁷, M Thomas⁷, P Thomas², K A Thorne⁷, K Toland²⁴, C I Torrie⁵, G Traylor⁷, A L Urban⁶, G Valdes⁶, P J Veitch⁹, K Venkateswara³⁷, G Venugopalan⁵, A D Viets³⁹, T Vo¹², C Vorvick², M Wade⁴⁰, R L Ward¹⁰, J Warner², B Weaver², R Weiss¹, B Willke^{19

20}, C C Wipf⁵, L Xiao⁵, H Yamamoto⁵, L Zhang⁵, M E Zucker^{1

5}, J Zweizig⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
² LIGO Hanford Observatory, Richland, WA 99352, USA.
³ Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. vivishek@mit.edu.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵ LIGO, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁶ Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
⁷ LIGO Livingston Observatory, Livingston, LA 70754, USA.
⁸ OzGrav, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
⁹ OzGrav, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
¹⁰ OzGrav, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
¹¹ University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
¹² Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
¹³ California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA.
¹⁴ Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
¹⁵ Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA 23606, USA.
¹⁶ University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
¹⁷ Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁸ Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA.
¹⁹ Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
²⁰ Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
²¹ RESCEU, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
²² University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
²³ Universitat de les Illes Balears, IAC3-IEEC, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
²⁴ SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
²⁵ Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK.
²⁶ The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
²⁷ University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
²⁸ The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
²⁹ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
³⁰ University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
³¹ Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune 411007, India.
³² University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK.
³³ The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
³⁴ Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA 70813, USA.
³⁵ OzGrav, School of Physics & Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.
³⁶ The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA.
³⁷ University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
³⁸ Universität Hamburg, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany.
³⁹ Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon, WI 53097, USA.
⁴⁰ Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022, USA.

PMID: 34140386
DOI: 10.1126/science.abh2634

Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object

Chris Whittle et al. Science. 2021.

. 2021 Jun 18;372(6548):1333-1336.

doi: 10.1126/science.abh2634.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
² LIGO Hanford Observatory, Richland, WA 99352, USA.
³ Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. vivishek@mit.edu.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵ LIGO, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
⁶ Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
⁷ LIGO Livingston Observatory, Livingston, LA 70754, USA.
⁸ OzGrav, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
⁹ OzGrav, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
¹⁰ OzGrav, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
¹¹ University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
¹² Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
¹³ California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA.
¹⁴ Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
¹⁵ Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA 23606, USA.
¹⁶ University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
¹⁷ Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁸ Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA.
¹⁹ Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
²⁰ Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
²¹ RESCEU, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
²² University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
²³ Universitat de les Illes Balears, IAC3-IEEC, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
²⁴ SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
²⁵ Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK.
²⁶ The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA.
²⁷ University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
²⁸ The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
²⁹ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
³⁰ University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
³¹ Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune 411007, India.
³² University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK.
³³ The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
³⁴ Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, LA 70813, USA.
³⁵ OzGrav, School of Physics & Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.
³⁶ The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA.
³⁷ University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
³⁸ Universität Hamburg, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany.
³⁹ Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon, WI 53097, USA.
⁴⁰ Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022, USA.

PMID: 34140386
DOI: 10.1126/science.abh2634

Abstract

The motion of a mechanical object, even a human-sized object, should be governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. Coaxing them into a quantum state is, however, difficult because the thermal environment masks any quantum signature of the object's motion. The thermal environment also masks the effects of proposed modifications of quantum mechanics at large mass scales. We prepared the center-of-mass motion of a 10-kilogram mechanical oscillator in a state with an average phonon occupation of 10.8. The reduction in temperature, from room temperature to 77 nanokelvin, is commensurate with an 11 orders-of-magnitude suppression of quantum back-action by feedback and a 13 orders-of-magnitude increase in the mass of an object prepared close to its motional ground state. Our approach will enable the possibility of probing gravity on massive quantum systems.

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Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object

Affiliations

Approaching the motional ground state of a 10-kg object

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

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