Polarization of the hydrogen atom by an external gravitational field

P. R. Berman

Hans Albrecht Bethe, E. E. Salpeter

Pierre Pradel, F. Roussel, A. S. Schlachter +2 more

A. G. Lebed

Recently, we have started to investigate behavior of a composite quantum body in an external gravitational field in the framework of General Relativity [see, for a review, A. G. Lebed, Mod. Phys. Lett. A, {\bf 35}, 2030010 (2020)]. As the simplest example, we have considered a hydrogen atom in a weak gravitational field. Our results are the following. The Einstein's Equivalence Principle survives for the most of macroscopic ensembles of the atoms, containing the stationary quantum states. On the other hand, we have demonstrated that this principle is sometimes broken. In particular, it is broken for the so-called Gravitational demons, which are the coherent macroscopic ensembles of two or more stationary quantum states in the hydrogen atoms. In the above cited paper we have considered the Gedanken experiment, where the gravitational field is suddenly switched on in a free from gravitation space. In the current paper we consider the much more realistic from experimental point of view Gedanken experiment and come to the same conclusion about violations of the Einstein's Equivalence Principle for the Gravitational demons.

A. G. Lebed

The simplest quantum composite body, a hydrogen atom, is considered in the presence of a weak external gravitational field. We define an operator for the passive gravitational mass of the atom in the post-Newtonian approximation of the general relativity and show that it does not commute with its energy operator. Nevertheless, the equivalence between the expectation values of the mass and energy is shown to survive at a macroscopic level for stationary quantum states. Breakdown of the equivalence between passive gravitational mass and energy at a microscopic level for stationary quantum states can be experimentally detected by studying unusual electromagnetic radiation, emitted by the atoms, supported by and moving in the Earth's gravitational field with constant velocity, using spacecraft or satellite.

Sergey A. Rashkovskiy