Quantum interferometry in external gravitational fields
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2025-12-11 v3 Quantum Physics
Abstract
Current models of quantum interference experiments in external gravitational fields lack a common framework: while matter-wave interferometers are commonly described using the Schr\"odinger equation with a Newtonian potential, gravitational effects in quantum optics are modeled using either post-Newtonian metrics or highly symmetric exact solutions to Einstein's field equations such as those of Schwarzschild and Kerr. To coherently describe both kinds of experiments, this paper develops a unified framework for modeling quantum interferometers in general stationary space-times. This model provides a rigorous description and coherent interpretation of the effects of classical gravity on quantum probes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.21808,
title = {Quantum interferometry in external gravitational fields},
author = {Thomas B. Mieling and Thomas Morling and Christopher Hilweg and Philip Walther},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.21808},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
20 pages, 7 figures