Motion and gravity effects in the precision of quantum clocks
Journal article, 2015

We show that motion and gravity affect the precision of quantum clocks. We consider a localised quantum field as a fundamental model of a quantum clock moving in spacetime and show that its state is modified due to changes in acceleration. By computing the quantum Fisher information we determine how relativistic motion modifies the ultimate bound in the precision of the measurement of time. While in the absence of motion the squeezed vacuum is the ideal state for time estimation, we find that it is highly sensitive to the motion-induced degradation of the quantum Fisher information. We show that coherent states are generally more resilient to this degradation and that in the case of very low initial number of photons, the optimal precision can be even increased by motion. These results can be tested with current technology by using superconducting resonators with tunable boundary conditions.

Author

Joel Lindkvist

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

C. Sabín

University of Nottingham

Göran Johansson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Applied Quantum Physics

I. Fuentes

University of Vienna

Scientific Reports

2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 10070

Subject Categories

Physical Sciences

DOI

10.1038/srep10070

More information

Latest update

3/29/2018