Entanglement dynamics of photon pairs and quantum memories in the gravitational field of the earth
Roy Barzel, Mustafa Gündoğan, Markus Krutzik, Dennis Rätzel, Cláus Lämmerzahl
Abstract
We investigate the effect of entanglement dynamics due to gravity – the basis of a mechanism of universal decoherence – for photonic states and quantum memories in Mach-Zehnder and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry setups in the gravitational field of the earth. We show that chances are good to witness the effect with near-future technology in Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry. This would represent an experimental test of theoretical modeling combining a multi-particle effect predicted by the quantum theory of light and an effect predicted by general relativity. Our article represents the first analysis of relativistic gravitational effects on space-based quantum memories which are expected to be an important ingredient for global quantum communication networks.