The Quantum of Mechanics – exploring mechanical motion in the quantum regime

Prof. Dr Markus Aspelmeyer, Professor of Physics at the University of Vienna, Austria,

Jentschke Lecture 2018
The quantum optical control of solid-state mechanical devices, quantum optomechanics, has emerged as a new frontier of light-matter interactions. Devices currently being studied cover a mass range of more than 17 orders of magnitude - from nanomechanical waveguides of some picograms to macroscopic, kilogram-weight mirrors of gravitational wave detectors.

The fast progress in controlling ever increasing masses in the quantum regime creates new and unexpected opportunities to address one of the outstanding questions at the interface between quantum physics and gravity, namely “how does a quantum system gravitate?”.