Quantum limits of the measurement of motion

Quantum physics puts limits on the amount of knowledge that we can obtain about the reality. One such limit restricts the knowledge of the position and the momentum (velocity) of an object, which means that the trajectory of an object cannot be determined with certainty. This limit concerns everything, from electrons to macroscopic objects. However, the larger is the object, the smaller is the size of the uncertainty. Nonetheless, with the development of science, the size of objects which are “blurred”, or are in a “superposition” state, has grown from single electrons to thousands of billions of atoms.
The big question we wish to address is “can we observe the motion of a macroscopic object without uncertainty?”
We propose to observe the motion relatively to a special, quantum reference frame which has an effective negative mass. Based on our prior theoretical studies, we believe that with our approach motion can be observed with an uncertainty which is way below the conventional quantum limits. The proposed program includes 1) development of the experimental setup for observation of motion in the quantum reference frame 2) demonstration of the motion of a millimeter size object beyond the standard quantum limit of sensitivity and 3) study of physical and philosophical implications of these results.
The result of this project will change our understanding of the limits on the knowledge we can obtain about the motion of objects. Besides, fundamental importance of studying ultimate quantum limits of knowledge, this project will generate insights which will help developing novel types of measurements of forces, gravity and electro-magnetic fields.