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Journal of Physics Conference Series

A Note on Observation and Theoretical Description of the Neutron Whispering Gallery Effect

Валерий Викторович Несвижевский, Alexei Yu. Voronin, R. Cubitt, Konstantin V. Protasov

Published Feb 8, 2012• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The "whispering gallery" effect has been known since ancient times for sound waves in air, later in water and more recentiy for a broad range of electromagnetic waves from the radiofrequency region, through visible light to X-rays. It consists of wave localization in the vicinity of concave surfaces. For matter waves, it would include a new feature: a massive particle would be settled in quantum states, with parameters depending on its mass. Here, we present the observation and theoretical description of such an effect.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/340/1/012020

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The "whispering gallery" effect has been known since ancient times for sound waves in air, later in water and more recentiy for a broad range of electromagnetic waves from the radiofrequency region, through visible light to X-rays. It consists of wave localization in the vicinity of concave surfaces. For matter waves, it would include a new feature: a massive particle would be settled in quantum states, with parameters depending on its mass. Here, we present the observation and theoretical description of such an effect.
A neutron whispering gallery state is a quantum state localized on a material surface bound by the centrifugal force and the material potential. Precise measurements of such quantum states enable tests of quantum mechanics in noninertial frames, characterization of the surface potential, and searches for hypothetical short-range interactions at the nanometer scale. We observed a neutron whispering gallery state on a SiO 2 concave mirror using a pulsed cold neutron beam. The measured results agree with theoretical calculations within 1.9% for the centrifugal acceleration a ≈ 7 × 10 7 m / s 2 , which is due to unmodeled deviations of the shape of the concave mirror edge from an ideal one. We found that the sensitivity itself was 1 × 10 − 4 , which is two orders of magnitude better than the above agreement.
The external fields of optical whispering gallery modes may be used to confine atoms in stable orbits around a dielectric microsphere. As an example, a toroidal dipole-force trap (atom gallery) for three-level atoms is investigated, and the possibility of achieving an atomic (matter-wave) resonator is discussed. The extremely small electromagnetic mode volumes and high Q's of the whispering gallery modes should permit a circulating photon to be repeatedly absorbed and reemitted by a trapped whispering atom.
The bound state structure and dynamics for an atom trap formed from the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) of a dielectric microsphere are investigated. The coupling of the quantized internal and external atomic degrees of freedom plays a fundamental role in the quantum dynamics of this atom gallery. The radiative processes for a cold atom near a microsphere are modified due to the special symmetry of the atom gallery, the WGM mode structure, and the finite extent of the center-of-mass (c.m.) wave packet. Finally, interesting implications of the quantized c.m. for atomic matter waves and cavity QED with a quantum field are mentioned.
The “whispering gallery” effect has been known since ancient times for sound waves in air, later in water and more recently for a broad range of electromagnetic waves from the radiofrequency region, through visible light to X-rays. It consists of wave localization in the vicinity of concave surfaces. For matter waves, it would include a new feature: a massive particle would be settled in quantum states, with parameters depending on its mass. Here, we present the first observation of such an effect as well as constraints for short-range forces that could be estimated from this first observation.
In 2016 we published a review paper "Nonlinear and Quantum Optics with Whispering Gallery Resonators" (1). While writing this review, we found it often necessary to defer addressing many challenges of the field to the future. At the same time, many potential benefits offered by nonlinear optical resonators were also deferred to the future pending the underlying technology development. The past ten years have seen a great deal of such development, including in the field of resonator optics. We feel that an update to our 2016 review is in order. In this new review we focus on the most significant developments in the field that took place in past ten years.
The ‘whispering gallery’ effect has been known since ancient times for sound waves in air, later in water and more recently for a broad range of electromagnetic waves: radio, optics, Roentgen and so on. It is intensively used and explored due to its numerous crucial applications. It consists of wave localization near a curved reflecting surface and is expected for waves of various natures, for instance, for neutrons and (anti)atoms. For (anti)matter waves, it includes a new feature: a massive particle is settled in quantum states, with parameters depending on its mass. In this talk, we present the first observation of the quantum whispering-gallery effect for matter particles (cold neutrons) 1-2. This phenomenon provides an example of an exactly solvable problem analogous to the ‘quantum bouncer’; it is complementary to recently discovered gravitational quantum states of neutrons3. These two phenomena provide a direct demonstration of the weak equivalence principle for a massive particle in a quantum state. Deeply bound long-living states are weakly sensitive to surface potential; highly excited short-living states are very sensitive to the wall nuclear potential shape. Therefore, they are a promising tool for studying fundamental neutron–matter interactions, quantum neutron optics and surface physics effects. Analogous phenomena could be measured with atoms and anti-atoms 4-5.