Creating atom-nanoparticle quantum superpositions

A nanoscale object evidenced in a non-classical state of its centre mass will hugely extend the boundaries quantum mechanics. To obtain practical scheme for same, we exploit hitherto unexplored coupled system: an atom and nanoparticle by optical field. We show how to control center-of-mass large $\sim500$nm using internal so as create, well detect, nonclassical motional states nanoparticle. Specifically, consider setup based on silica Cesium discuss protocol preparing verifying Schr\"{o}dinger-cat that does no require cooling ground state. existence superposition can be revealed Earth's gravitational field method is insensitive most common sources decoherence works any initial