1306.2699 (Mankei Tsang)

A classical model for asymmetric sidebands in cavity optomechanical
measurements    [PDF]

Mankei Tsang

Safavi-Naeini et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033602 (2012)] recently claimed to have demonstrated quantum behavior of a mechanical oscillator in a cavity optomechanical system. This was done by comparing the spectra of two sets of optical measurements and showing that one spectrum is higher than the other. In this note I show that a classical stochastic model, without any reference to quantum mechanics, can also reproduce this asymmetry, which has an optical, rather than mechanical, origin. This means that the asymmetry cannot be used to demonstrate quantum behavior of the mechanical oscillator conclusively.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2699