Casimir effect and quantum reflection
Quantum Physics
2016-01-25 v1
Abstract
The GBAR experiment will time the free fall of cold antihydrogen atoms dropped onto an annihilation plate to test the universality of free fall on antimatter. In this contribution, we study the quantum reflection of the anti-atom resulting from the Casimir-Polder attraction to the plate. We evaluate the Casimir-Polder potential and the associated quantum reflection amplitudes and find that reflection is enhanced for weaker potentials. A Liouville transformation of the Schr\"odinger equation is used to map the quantum reflection problem onto an equivalent problem of scattering on a barrier, leading to an intuitive understanding of the phenomenon.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1511.03973,
title = {Casimir effect and quantum reflection},
author = {Gabriel Dufour and Romain Guérout and Astrid Lambrecht and Serge Reynaud},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.03973},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
Contribution to the Rencontres de Moriond 2015 Gravitation session