English

Exact Semiclassical Phase Shifts for Relativistic Atom Interferometers in Flat Spacetime

Atomic Physics 2026-07-10 v1

Abstract

Atom interferometry is a sensitive tool for measuring relativistic effects, but there are no known non-trivial exact solutions for relativistic atom interferometer phase shifts. Here we derive relativistically exact expressions within the usual semiclassical approximation for a wide range of experimentally interesting atom interferometer pulse sequences in flat spacetime, including Mach-Zehnder, resonant, and large momentum transfer interferometer geometries. As an example, the leading order phase shift ωagT2/c\omega_a g T^2/c for a Mach-Zehnder clock atom interferometer is found to become ωa(1+ωa2m)(egT/c1)2c/g\omega_a \left(1 + \frac{\omega_a}{2m}\right)(e^{-gT/c}-1)^2 c/g when all relativistic kinematics are included. We calculate exact phase shifts for both clock (single-photon) interferometers and Raman or Bragg (two-photon) interferometers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.10042,
  title  = {Exact Semiclassical Phase Shifts for Relativistic Atom Interferometers in Flat Spacetime},
  author = {Hunter Swan and Jason M. Hogan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.10042},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 6 figures