2003/05/16 by Jeeva Anandan, JEEVA ANANDAN, Naresh Dadhich +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-th #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0218271803003931
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys. D12 (2003) 1651-1656 · This essay received an ``honorable mention'' in the 2003 Gravity Research Foundation essay competition
arxiv created 2003/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present, for the first time, an action principle that gives the equations of motion of an extended body possessing multipole moments in an external gravitational field, in the weak field limit. From the action, the experimentally observable quantum phase shifts in the wavefunction of an extended object due to the coupling of its multipole moments with the gravitational field are obtained. Also, since the theory may be quantized using the action, the present approach is useful in the interface between general relativity and quantum mechanics.