Interferometry with relativistic electrons
Classical Physics
2014-06-05 v2
Abstract
We propose an experiment to test the influence of Lorentz contraction on the interference pattern of a beam of electrons. The electron beam is split and recombined by two pairs of bi-chromatic laser pulses, using a variation of the Kapitza-Dirac effect. Between the pairs the electrons are accelerated to relativistic speed. We show that Lorentz contraction of the distance between two partial beams will then lead to a reduction of fringe visibility. The connection of the proposal to Bell's spaceship paradox is discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1309.1157,
title = {Interferometry with relativistic electrons},
author = {Karl-Peter Marzlin and Thomas Lee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.1157},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
To appear in Phys. Rev. A