Ramsey’s method of separated oscillating fields and its application to gravitationally induced quantum phase shifts

2009/07/30 by H. Abele, Tobias Jenke, T. Jenke +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #nucl-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.81.065019

published as Phys.Rev.D81:065019,2010 · 7 pages, 6 figures

arxiv created 2009/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2010/03/18 · arxiv updated 2010/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We propose to apply Ramsey's method of separated oscillating fields to the spectroscopy of the quantum states in the gravity potential above a horizontal mirror. This method allows a precise measurement of quantum mechanical phaseshifts of a Schr"odinger wave packet bouncing off a hard surface in the gravitational field of the Earth. Measurements with ultracold neutrons will offer a sensitivity to Newton's law or hypothetical short-ranged interactions, which is about 21 orders of magnitude below the energy scale of electromagnetism.

Citations

• Measurement of quantum states of neutrons in the Earth’s gravitational field
• Improved constraints on non-Newtonian forces at 10 microns
• Quantum states of neutrons in the Earth's gravitational field
• Probing submicron forces by interferometry of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms
• A quantum bouncing ball
• Constraints on new interactions from neutron scattering experiments
• NMR Techniques for Quantum Control and Computation
• New Developments in the Casimir Effect
• Observation of Gravitationally Induced Quantum Interference
• The quantum bouncer
• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Neutron scattering and extra-short-range interactions

Cited by

• Search for new physics with atoms and molecules
• Influence of the chameleon field potential on transition frequencies of gravitationally bound quantum states of ultracold neutrons