Abstract
We propose a feasible laboratory interferometry experiment with matter waves in a gravitational potential caused by a pair of artificial field-generating masses. It will demonstrate that the presence of these masses (and, for moving atoms, time dilation) induces a phase shift, even if it does not cause any classical force. The phase shift is identical to that produced by the gravitational redshift (or time dilation) of clocks ticking at the atom’s Compton frequency. In analogy to the Aharonov-Bohm effect in electromagnetism, the quantum mechanical phase is a function of the gravitational potential and not the classical forces.
- Received 22 September 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.230404
© 2012 American Physical Society
Synopsis
The Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm Effect
Published 7 June 2012
The gravitational version of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, where particles are affected by the gravitational potential in the absence of a force, could be demonstrated in a lab-scale experiment using ultracold atoms.
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