2026-10-26 · arXiv Quantum Physics
arXiv:2610.32368v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: State purity is a key resource for experimental tests of quantum mechanics with massive objects. Cavity cooling of a levitated nanoparticle via coherent scattering stands out as a strategy to prepare highly pure states of its roto-translational motion. In several cases, though, the performance of cooling by coherent scattering is limited by the classical fluctuations of the laser field. Here we present a quantum theory of coherent-scattering experiments which includes the effect of the laser amplitude and phase noise. We derive a master equation for the noise-averaged particle's dynamics, valid for both center-of-mass and rotational degrees of freedom, and quantify the cooling performance for different levels of noise in state-of-the-art experiments. We compute approximate analytical expressions for the laser-noise-induced heating rates and excess phonon number in both regimes of weak and strong optomechanical coupling. Moreover, our model can be applied to laser noise processes with generic power spectral densities and finite correlation times. This work offers a toolbox to quantify and optimize the state purity in coherent-scattering experiments, and opens new avenues towards the preparation of quantum states with levitated systems.
原文链接：https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.32368
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