Large spatial Schrodinger cat using a levitated ferrimagnetic nanoparticle (1907.00415v4)

Abstract: The superposition principle is one of the main tenets of quantum mechanics. Despite its counter-intuitiveness, it has been experimentally verified using electrons, photons, atoms, and molecules. However, a similar experimental demonstration using a nano or a micro particle is non-existent. Here in this Letter, exploiting macroscopic quantum coherence and quantum tunneling, we propose an experiment using levitated magnetic nanoparticle to demonstrate such an effect. It is shown that the spatial separation between the delocalized wavepackets of a $20~$nm ferrimagnetic yttrium iron garnet (YIG) nanoparticle can be as large as $5~$$\mu$m. We argue that this large spatial separation can be used to test different modifications such as collapse models to the standard quantum mechanics. Furthermore, we show that the spatial superposition of a core-shell structure, a YIG core and a non-magnetic silica shell, can be used to probe quantum gravity.