Coupling of linearized gravity to nonrelativistic test particles: Dynamics in the general laboratory frame

The coupling of gravity to matter is explored in the linearized gravity limit. The usual derivation of gravity-matter couplings within the quantum-field-theoretic framework is reviewed. A number of inconsistencies between this derivation of the couplings and the known results of tidal effects on test particles according to classical general relativity are pointed out. As a step towards resolving these inconsistencies, a general laboratory frame fixed on the worldline of an observer is constructed. In this frame, the dynamics of nonrelativistic test particles in the linearized gravity limit is studied, and their Hamiltonian dynamics is derived. It is shown that for stationary metrics this Hamiltonian reduces to the usual Hamiltonian for nonrelativistic particles undergoing geodesic motion. For nonstationary metrics with long-wavelength gravitational waves present (GWs), it reduces to the Hamiltonian for a nonrelativistic particle undergoing geodesic deviation motion. Arbitrary-wavelength GWs couple to the test particle through a vector-potential-like field $N_a,$ the net result of the tidal forces that the GW induces in the system, namely, a local velocity field on the system induced by tidal effects, as seen by an observer in the general laboratory frame. Effective electric and magnetic fields, which are related to the electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl tensor, are constructed from $N_a$ that obey equations of the same form as Maxwell’s equations. A gedankin gravitational Aharonov-Bohm-type experiment using $N_a$ to measure the interference of quantum test particles is presented.