Seminar: Composite Particles as Probes of the Quantum-and-Gravity Interface

Abstract

Composite quantum particles, such as atoms and molecules, are promising tools for probing quantum systems under gravitational effects, particularly in non-relativistic settings. However, greater understanding of the effects of mass-energy equivalence in composite particles and their interactions with external environments is still needed.

In this talk, I will present recent work which addressed this knowledge gap by deriving semi-classical propagating states for the above particles, and by modelling generalised interactions between quantum systems and external environments – in this case, a quantum field. I will discuss these results and show how they highlight the importance of mass–energy equivalence for correctly modelling quantum particles with internal structure—particularly when the interplay between internal, external, and environmental degrees of freedom is crucial—and discuss how they stretch our notions of what it means to work in the non-relativistic regime.

Carolyn Wood

Postdoctoral Scientist

Carolyn Wood is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia focusing on quantum machine learning and physics at the interface between quantum mechanics and general relativity.