Gravitational induced phases in neutron interferometry

21.04.2010 - 20.04.2015
Research funding project

Gravitational phases induced on the neutron shall systematically be investigated in large neutron interferometers. In the perfect crystal interferometer, a single neutron is macroscopically separated by several centimetres and experiences phase shifts depending on the height of one path above the other. But the hitherto measured phase shifts are approximately 1% lower than expected. As the gravitational phase shift increases with the interferometer size the new generation of large neutron interferometers will be much more sensitive to gravitation. Our aim is the verification of the Newtonian gravitation law for a macroscopically separated very light sub-atomar quantum object. The same setup will be exploited for sensing hypothetic non-Newtonian short-range interactions by accurately measuring the coherent scattering length of silicon in a perfect crystal at different lattice reflections. A special feature of our setup is the sensitivity to the submicron interaction regime.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • FWF - Ă–sterr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Stand-Alone Project Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Research focus

  • Quantum Metrology and Precision Measurements: 80%
  • Modeling and Simulation: 20%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
PrismenablenkungPrism deflection
NeutroneninterferometrieNeutron interferometry
GravitationGravitation
Dynamische BeugungDynamical diffraction
Hohe WinkelauflösungHigh Angular resolution

Publications