English

Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox

Quantum Physics 2023-06-26 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Atomic Physics

Abstract

The phase of matter waves depends on proper time and is therefore susceptible to special-relativistic (kinematic) and gravitational (redshift) time dilation. Hence, it is conceivable that atom interferometers measure general-relativistic time-dilation effects. In contrast to this intuition, we show: (i.) Closed light-pulse interferometers without clock transitions during the pulse sequence are not sensitive to gravitational time dilation in a linear potential. (ii.) They can constitute a quantum version of the special-relativistic twin paradox. (iii.) Our proposed experimental geometry for a quantum-clock interferometer isolates this effect.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.09102,
  title  = {Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox},
  author = {Sina Loriani and Alexander Friedrich and Christian Ufrecht and Fabio Di Pumpo and Stephan Kleinert and Sven Abend and Naceur Gaaloul and Christian Meiners and Christian Schubert and Dorothee Tell and Étienne Wodey and Magdalena Zych and Wolfgang Ertmer and Albert Roura and Dennis Schlippert and Wolfgang P. Schleich and Ernst M. Rasel and Enno Giese},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.09102},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

11 Pages, 3 Figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:17:26.893Z