Interferometric constraints on quantum geometrical shear noise correlations

Journal Article · 20 July 2017 · Classical and Quantum Gravity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aa7bd3 · OSTI ID:1352197

Chou, Aaron ^[1]; Glass, Henry ^[1]; Gustafson, H. Richard ^[2]; Hogan, Craig J. ^[3]; Kamai, Brittany L. ^[4]; Kwon, Ohkyung  ^[5]; Lanza, Robert ^[6]; McCuller, Lee ^[6]; Meyer, Stephan S. ^[7]; Richardson, Jonathan W.  ^[8]; Stoughton, Chris ^[1]; Tomlin, Ray ^[1]; Weiss, Rainer ^[6]

---

1. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
3. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
4. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
5. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Republic of Korea)
6. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
7. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
8. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)

Final measurements and analysis are reported from the first-generation Holometer, the first instrument capable of measuring correlated variations in space-time position at strain noise power spectral densities smaller than a Planck time. The apparatus consists of two co-located, but independent and isolated, 40 m power-recycled Michelson interferometers, whose outputs are cross-correlated to 25 MHz. The data are sensitive to correlations of differential position across the apparatus over a broad band of frequencies up to and exceeding the inverse light crossing time, 7.6 MHz. By measuring with Planck precision the correlation of position variations at spacelike separations, the Holometer searches for faint, irreducible correlated position noise backgrounds predicted by some models of quantum space-time geometry. The first-generation optical layout is sensitive to quantum geometrical noise correlations with shear symmetry---those that can be interpreted as a fundamental noncommutativity of space-time position in orthogonal directions. General experimental constraints are placed on parameters of a set of models of spatial shear noise correlations, with a sensitivity that exceeds the Planck-scale holographic information bound on position states by a large factor. Furthermore, this result significantly extends the upper limits placed on models of directional noncommutativity by currently operating gravitational wave observatories.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: Holometer
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1352197
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-16-527; arXiv:1703.08503; 1519160
• Journal Information: Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 34, Issue 16; ISSN 0264-9381
• Publisher: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English