English

Antihydrogen Gravitational Quantum States

Atomic Physics 2011-03-14 v1

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the motion of the antihydrogen atom (Hˉ\bar{H}) in the Earth's gravitational field above a material surface. We predict that Hˉ\bar{H} atom, falling in the Earth's gravitational field above a material surface, would settle in long-living quantum states. We point out a method of measuring the difference in energy of Hˉ\bar{H} in such states that allow us to apply spectroscopy of gravitational levels based on atom-interferometric principles. We analyze a general feasibility to perform experiments of this kind. We point out that such experiments provide a method of measuring the gravitational force (MgMg) acting on Hˉ\bar{H} and they might be of interest in a context of testing the Weak Equivalence Principle for antimatter.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1103.2150,
  title  = {Antihydrogen Gravitational Quantum States},
  author = {A. Yu. Voronin and P. Froelich and V. V. Nesvizhevsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.2150},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

24 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:38:05.844Z