Photons with sub-Planckian Energy Cannot Efficiently Probe Space-Time Foam

Extra-galactic sources of photons have been used to constrain space-time quantum fluctuations in the Universe. In these proposals, the fundamental "fuzziness" of distance caused by space-time quantum fluctuations has been directly identified with fluctuations in optical paths. Phase-front corrugations deduced from these optical-path fluctuations are then applied to light from extra-galactic point sources, and used to constrain various models of quantum gravity. However, when a photon propagates in three spatial dimensions, it does not follow a specific ray, but rather samples a finite, three-dimensional region around that ray --- thereby averaging over space-time quantum fluctuations all through that region. We use a simple, random-walk type model to demonstrate that, once the appropriate wave optics is applied, the averaging of neighboring space-time fluctuations will cause much less distortion to the phase front. In our model, the extra suppression factor due to diffraction is the wave length in units of the Planck length, which is at least $10^{29}$ for astronomical observations.Comment: This is a revised version of arXiv:gr-qc/060509

Enhancing the bandwidth of gravitational-wave detectors with unstable optomechanical filters

For gravitational-wave interferometric detectors, there is a tradeoff between the detector bandwidth and peak sensitivity when focusing on the shot noise level. This has to do with the frequency-dependent propagation phase lag (positive dispersion) of the signal. We consider embedding an active unstable filter---a cavity-assisted optomechanical device operating in the instability regime---inside the interferometer to compensate the phase, and using feedback control to stabilize the entire system. We show that this scheme in principle can enhance the bandwidth without sacrificing the peak sensitivity. However, there is one practical difficulty for implementing it due to the thermal fluctuation of the mechanical oscillator in the optomechanical filter, which puts a very stringent requirement on the environmental temperature and the mechanical quality factor.Comment: 5 pages and 6 figures. Comments are welcom

Quantum noise of white light cavity using double-pumped gain medium

Laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors implement Fabry-Perot cavities to increase their peak sensitivity. However, this is at cost of reducing their detection bandwidth, which origins from the propagation phase delay of the light. The "white-light-cavity" idea, first proposed by Wicht et al. [Optics Communications 134, 431 (1997)], is to circumvent this limitation by introducing anomalous dispersion, using double-pumped gain medium, to compensate for such phase delay. In this article, starting from the Hamiltonian of atom-light interaction, we apply the input-output formalism to evaluate the quantum noise of the system. We find that apart from the additional noise associated with the parametric amplification process noticed by others, the stability condition for the entire system poses an additional constraint. Through surveying the parameter regimes where the gain medium remains stable (not lasing) and stationary, we find that there is no net enhancement of the shot-noise limited sensitivity. Therefore, other gain mediums or different parameter regimes shall be explored for realizing the white light cavity.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Entanglement dynamics in U(1) symmetric hybrid quantum automaton circuits

We study the entanglement dynamics of quantum automaton (QA) circuits in the presence of U(1) symmetry. We find that the second R\'enyi entropy grows diffusively with a logarithmic correction as $\sqrt{t\ln{t}}$, saturating the bound established by Huang [IOP SciNotes 1, 035205 (2020)]. Thanks to the special feature of QA circuits, we understand the entanglement dynamics in terms of a classical bit string model. Specifically, we argue that the diffusive dynamics stems from the rare slow modes containing extensively long domains of spin 0s or 1s. Additionally, we investigate the entanglement dynamics of monitored QA circuits by introducing a composite measurement that preserves both the U(1) symmetry and properties of QA circuits. We find that as the measurement rate increases, there is a transition from a volume-law phase where the second R\'enyi entropy persists the diffusive growth (up to a logarithmic correction) to a critical phase where it grows logarithmically in time. This interesting phenomenon distinguishes QA circuits from non-automaton circuits such as U(1)-symmetric Haar random circuits, where a volume-law to an area-law phase transition exists, and any non-zero rate of projective measurements in the volume-law phase leads to a ballistic growth of the R\'enyi entropy.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

Towards the Fundamental Quantum Limit of Linear Measurements of Classical Signals

The quantum Cram\'er-Rao bound (QCRB) sets a fundamental limit for the measurement of classical signals with detectors operating in the quantum regime. Using linear-response theory and the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, we derive a general condition for achieving such a fundamental limit. When applied to classical displacement measurements with a test mass, this condition leads to an explicit connection between the QCRB and the Standard Quantum Limit which arises from a tradeoff between the measurement imprecision and quantum backaction; the QCRB can be viewed as an outcome of a quantum non-demolition measurement with the backaction evaded. Additionally, we show that the test mass is more a resource for improving measurement sensitivity than a victim of the quantum backaction, which suggests a new approach to enhancing the sensitivity of a broad class of sensors. We illustrate these points with laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors.Comment: revised version with supplemental materials adde

Entanglement Steering in Adaptive Circuits with Feedback

The intensely studied measurement-induced entanglement phase transition has become a hallmark of non-unitary quantum many-body dynamics. Usually, such a transition only shows up at the level of each individual quantum trajectory, and is absent for the density matrix averaged over measurement outcomes. In this work, we introduce a class of adaptive random circuit models with feedback that exhibit transitions in both settings. After each measurement, a unitary operation is either applied or not depending on the measurement outcome, which steers the averaged density matrix towards a unique state above a certain measurement threshold. Interestingly, the transition for the density matrix and the entanglement transition in the individual quantum trajectory in general happen at \textit{different} critical measurement rates. We demonstrate that the former transition belongs to the parity-conserving universality class by an explicit mapping to a classical branching-annihilating random walk process.Comment: 4.5 pages,6 figures; 5 pages of supplemental material. [v2] Figures compressed to reduce file size. [v3] Reference adde