Free-orbit experiment with laser interferometry X-rays

The Free-orbit Experiment with Laser Interferometry X-Rays (FELIX)[1] belongs to a category of experiments exploring whether macroscopic systems can be in superposition states. It was originally proposed by the physicist Roger Penrose in his 2004 book The Road to Reality specifically to prove whether unconventional decoherence processes such as gravitationally induced decoherence or spontaneous wave-function collapse of a quantum system occur.

Later revised to take place as a tabletop experiment,[2][3] if successful, it is estimated that a mass of roughly 1014 atoms would have been superposed, approximately nine orders of magnitude more massive than any superposition observed to that date (2003).

  1. ^ Penrose, Roger (Dec 2002) [2000]. "Gravitational Collapse of the Wavefunction: An Experimentally Testable Proposal" (PDF). The Ninth Marcel Grossmann Meeting. World Scientific. pp. 3–6. doi:10.1142/9789812777386_0001. ISBN 9789812777386. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  2. ^ Marshall, William; Christoph, Simon; Penrose, Roger; Bouwmeester, Dik (Sep 2003). "Towards quantum superpositions of a mirror". Physical Review Letters. 91 (13): 130401–130405. arXiv:quant-ph/0210001. Bibcode:2003PhRvL..91m0401M. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.130401. PMID 14525288. S2CID 16651036.
  3. ^ Adler, Stephen; Bassi, Angelo; Ippoliti, Emiliano (9 March 2005). "Towards quantum superpositions of a mirror: an exact open systems analysis—calculational details". Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General. 38 (12): 2715–2727. arXiv:quant-ph/0407084. Bibcode:2005JPhA...38.2715A. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/38/12/013. S2CID 14896336.

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