Operational Limits of Gravity-Mediated Entanglement

Abstract:Tests of gravity-mediated entanglement aim to determine whether two massive objects in spatial superposition can become entangled through their mutual gravitational interaction. In an ideal model, the two objects are often treated as pointlike branches, but real wave packets have a finite width and are also exposed to dephasing and residual non-gravitational forces. We study these effects in a two-branch gravitational cat-state model with Gaussian wave packets. The Newtonian interaction is averaged over the finite wave-packet width, and spatially correlated dephasing is included phenomenologically. We then ask a practical question: when does the generated state remain useful rather than merely entangled? To answer this, we examine Bell violation, teleportation fidelity, coherent information, Fisher information, and state distinguishability. We find finite parameter windows where the same state is Bell-nonlocal and teleportation-useful, but these windows shrink as the wave packets become broader or the dephasing becomes stronger. We also show that a residual electrostatic branch interaction can coherently cancel the gravitational nonlocal phase and strongly suppress the operational signal. The results identify finite-width and electrostatic tolerance boundaries that should be considered in future tests of gravity-mediated entanglement.

arXiv:2610.22097 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.22097v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.22097 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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