Classical theories of gravity produce entanglement

Abstract

The unification of gravity and quantum mechanics remains one of the most profound open questions in science. With recent advances in quantum technology, an experimental idea first proposed by Richard Feynman is now regarded as a promising route to testing this unification for the first time. The experiment involves placing a massive object in a quantum superposition of two locations and letting it gravitationally interact with another mass. In modern versions of the experiment, if the two objects subsequently become entangled, this is considered unambiguous evidence that gravity obeys the laws of quantum mechanics. This conclusion derives from theorems that treat a classical gravitational interaction as a local interaction capable of only transmitting classical, not quantum, information. Here, we argue that the classical gravitational interaction can transmit quantum information, and thus generate entanglement through physically local processes. The effects are found to scale differently to the considered quantum gravity effect, providing information on the form of the experiment required to evidence the quantum nature of gravity.