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Physical Review Letters

Observation of Gravitationally Induced Quantum Interference

R. Colella, A. W. Overhauser, S. A. Werner

Published Jun 9, 1975• 1,054 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have used a neutron interferometer to observe the quantum-mechanical phase shift of neutrons caused by their interaction with Earth's gravitational field.Received 14 April 1975DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.34.1472©1975 American Physical Society

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.34.1472

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We have used a neutron interferometer to observe the quantum-mechanical phase shift of neutrons caused by their interaction with Earth's gravitational field.Received 14 April 1975DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.34.1472©1975 American Physical Society
One of the significant successes in the field of neutron interferometry has been the experimental observation of the phase shift of a neutron de Broglie wave due to the action of the Earth's gravitational field. Past experiments have clearly demonstrated the effect and verified the quantum-mechanical equivalence of gravitational and inertial masses to a precision of about 1%. In this experiment the gravitationally induced phase shift of the neutron is measured with a statistical uncertainty of order 1 part in 1000 in two different interferometers. Nearly harmonic pairs of neutron wavelengths are used to measure and compensate for effects due to the distortion of the interferometer as it is tilted about the incident beam direction. A discrepancy between the theoretically predicted and experimentally measured values of the phase shift due to gravity is observed at the 1% level. Extensions to the theoretical description of the shape of a neutron interferogram as a function of tilt in a gravitational field are discussed and compared with experiment.