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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Phase shift in atom interferometry due to spacetime curvature

Chris Overstreet, Peter Asenbaum, Tim Kovachy, Daniel Brown, Jason M. Hogan, Mark A. Kasevich

Published Jun 7, 2017• 2 citations
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Abstract Light pulse atom interferometers (AIFs) are exquisite quantum probes of spatial inhomogeneity and gravitational curvature. Moreover, detailed measurement and calibration are necessary prerequisites for very-long-baseline atom interferometry (VLBAI). Here we provide a theoretical analysis of the phase resulting in a complex gravitational environment and introduce a novel interferometer geometry which singles out the phase shift proportional to the curvature of the gravitational potential. The scale factor depends only on well controlled quantities, namely the photon wave number, the interferometer time and the atomic recoil, which allows the curvature to be accurately inferred from a measured phase. As a case study, we numerically simulate such a gradiometric interferometer in the context of the Hannover VLBAI facility and prove the robustness of the phase shift in gravitational fields with complex spatial dependence. We define an estimator of the gravitational curvature for non-trivial gravitational fields and calculate the trade-off between signal strength and estimation accuracy with regard to spatial resolution. As a perspective, we discuss the case of a time-dependent gravitational field and corresponding measurement strategies.

Communications Physics•Nov 14, 2025•2 citations
This paper investigates a geometric framework for the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect in four-dimensional spacetime, demonstrating how spacetime curvature induces nonlocal quantum phase shifts within field-free regions. By constructing vector bundles on spacetime manifolds equipped with Levi-Civita connections, we derive the holonomy transformations for parallel-transported quantum states. Under the Newtonian approximation, metric decomposition into Minkowski background plus scalar potential perturbations reveals through the linearized Einstein field equations that the gravitationally induced phase shift is mathematically isomorphic to its electromagnetic counterpart. These results establish the quantum observability of gravitational gauge structures and provide theoretical support for experimental verification via atom interferometry.
Abstract Light pulse atom interferometers (AIFs) are exquisite quantum probes of spatial inhomogeneity and gravitational curvature. Moreover, detailed measurement and calibration are necessary prerequisites for very-long-baseline atom interferometry (VLBAI). Here we provide a theoretical analysis of the phase resulting in a complex gravitational environment and introduce a novel interferometer geometry which singles out the phase shift proportional to the curvature of the gravitational potential. The scale factor depends only on well controlled quantities, namely the photon wave number, the interferometer time and the atomic recoil, which allows the curvature to be accurately inferred from a measured phase. As a case study, we numerically simulate such a gradiometric interferometer in the context of the Hannover VLBAI facility and prove the robustness of the phase shift in gravitational fields with complex spatial dependence. We define an estimator of the gravitational curvature for non-trivial gravitational fields and calculate the trade-off between signal strength and estimation accuracy with regard to spatial resolution. As a perspective, we discuss the case of a time-dependent gravitational field and corresponding measurement strategies.