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arXiv:2608.15587

Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect: theory and experiment

Zhongyou Mo, Leonardo Modesto

Published Aug 16, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the quantum interference of two paths that enclose a slowly rotating, infinitely long, and infinitely thin cylindrical shell, using the spacetime metric induced by the gravitational source. We show that the rotation of the shell affects the interference pattern even though it does not contribute to the classical motion of particles propagating outside the shell. Furthermore, we find that the gravitomagnetic field is non-vanishing only in the region inside the shell, yet it contributes to the interference taking place entirely in the exterior region. This phenomenon is therefore a gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which a field confined to an inaccessible region influences the quantum phase of particles propagating in a field-free region.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2608.15587

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We study the quantum interference of two paths that enclose a slowly rotating, infinitely long, and infinitely thin cylindrical shell, using the spacetime metric induced by the gravitational source. We show that the rotation of the shell affects the interference pattern even though it does not contribute to the classical motion of particles propagating outside the shell. Furthermore, we find that the gravitomagnetic field is non-vanishing only in the region inside the shell, yet it contributes to the interference taking place entirely in the exterior region. This phenomenon is therefore a gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which a field confined to an inaccessible region influences the quantum phase of particles propagating in a field-free region.
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Abstract In this paper, we study the phenomenon of quantum interference in the presence of external gravitational fields described by alternative theories of gravity. We analyze both non-relativistic and relativistic effects induced by the underlying curved background on a superposed quantum system. In the non-relativistic regime, it is possible to come across a gravitational counterpart of the Bohm–Aharonov effect, which results in a phase shift proportional to the derivative of the modified Newtonian potential. On the other hand, beyond the Newtonian approximation, the relativistic nature of gravity plays a crucial rôle. Indeed, the existence of a gravitational time dilation between the two arms of the interferometer causes a loss of coherence that is in principle observable in quantum interference patterns. We work in the context of generalized quadratic theories of gravity to compare their physical predictions with the analogous outcomes in general relativity. In so doing, we show that the decoherence rate strongly depends on the gravitational model under investigation, which means that this approach turns out to be a promising test bench to probe and discriminate among all the extensions of Einstein’s theory in future experiments.
The gravitational Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect is examined in the weak-field approximation to general relativity. In analogy with the electromagnetic AB effect, we find that a gravitoelectromagnetic 4-vector potential gives rise to interference effects. A matter wave interferometry experiment, based on a modification of the gravity-induced quantum interference experiment of Colella, Overhauser and Werner (COW), is proposed to explicitly test the gravitoelectric version of the AB effect in a uniform gravitational field.