Testing a Model of Planck-Scale Quantum Geometry With Broadband Correlation of Colocated 40m Interferometers
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
The Holometer is designed to test for a Planck diffractive-scaling uncertainty in long-baseline position measurements due to an underlying noncommutative geometry normalized to relate Black hole entropy bounds of the Holographic principle to the now-finite number of position states. The experiment overlaps two independent 40 meter optical Michelson interferometers to detect the proposed uncertainty as a common broadband length fluctuation. 150 hours of instrument cross-correlation data are analyzed to test the prediction of a correlated noise magnitude of $$7\times10^{−21}$$ m/$$\sqrt{\rm Hz}$$ with an effective bandwidth of 750kHz. The interferometers each have a quantum-limited sensitivity of $$2.5\times 10^{−18}$$ m/$$\sqrt{\rm Hz}$$, but their correlation with a time-bandwidth product of $$4\times 10^{11}$$ digs between the noise floors in search for the covarying geometric jitter. The data presents an exclusion of 5 standard deviations for the tested model. This exclusion is defended through analysis of the calibration methods for the instrument as well as further sub shot noise characterization of the optical systems to limit spurious background-correlations from undermining the signal.
- Research Organization:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1248344
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-THESIS-2015-37; 1430102; TRN: US1601328
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
QUANTUM SYSTEMS
MICHELSON INTERFEROMETER
GEOMETRY
CORRELATIONS
ENTROPY
NOISE
FLUCTUATIONS
LENGTH
BLACK HOLES
COMMUTATION RELATIONS
HOLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLE
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
CALIBRATION
TESTING
DATA COVARIANCES
SCALING LAWS
SENSITIVITY
SIGNALS
LIMITING VALUES