Related papers: Atom interferometry and the Einstein equivalence p…
Light-pulse atom interferometers constitute powerful quantum sensors for inertial forces. They are based on delocalised spatial superpositions and the combination with internal transitions directly links them to atomic clocks. Since…
Atom interferometers allow the measurement of the acceleration of freely falling atoms with respect to an experimental platform at rest on Earth's surface. Such experiments have been used to test the universality of free fall by comparing…
Atom interferometers allow the measurement of the acceleration of freely falling atoms with respect to an experimental platform at rest on Earth's surface. Such experiments have been used to test the universality of free fall by comparing…
The unification of quantum theory and the general theory of relativity - describing gravity, is one of the most important challenges in science. Einstein's general theory of relativity is based on the principle of equivalence, and has been…
From the principle of equivalence, Einstein predicted that clocks slow down in a gravitational field. Since the general theory of relativity is based on the principle of equivalence, it is essential to test this prediction accurately.…
Atomic interference experiments can probe the gravitational redshift via the internal energy splitting of atoms and thus give direct access to test the universality of the coupling between matter-energy and gravity at different spacetime…
We describe a light-pulse atom interferometer that is suitable for any species of atom and even for electrons and protons as well as their antiparticles, in particular for testing the Einstein equivalence principle with antihydrogen. The…
Atom interferometry is now reaching sufficient precision to motivate laboratory tests of general relativity. We begin by explaining the non-relativistic calculation of the phase shift in an atom interferometer and deriving its range of…
That gravitation can be understood as purely metric phenomenon depends crucially on the validity of a number of hypotheses which are summarised by the Einstein Equivalence Principle, the least well tested part of which being the…
Atom interferometers measure quantum interference patterns in the wave functions of cold atoms that follow superpositions of different space-time trajectories. These can be sensitive to phase shifts induced by fundamental physics processes…
In the presence of Earth gravity and gravity-gradient forces, centrifugal and Coriolis forces caused by the Earth rotation, the phase of the time-domain atom interferometers is calculated with accuracy up to the terms proportional to the…
We review matter wave and clock comparison tests of the gravitational redshift. To elucidate their relationship to tests of the universality of free fall (UFF), we define scenarios wherein redshift violations are coupled to violations of…
We stand by our result [H. Mueller et al., Nature 463, 926-929 (2010)]. The comment [P. Wolf et al., Nature 467, E1 (2010)] revisits an interesting issue that has been known for decades, the relationship between test of the universality of…
I analyze the change of the interference pattern in an optical interferometer when it passes from rest to free fall. It is shown that the "disconnection" of the gravitational field causes a jump in the phase difference that could be…
We present a gravitationally rigorous and clear answer, in the negative, to the question whether gravimetry with atom interferometers is equivalent to the the measurement of the relative gravitational time dilation of two clocks separated…
In an ideal test of the equivalence principle, the test masses fall in a common inertial frame. A real experiment is affected by gravity gradients, which introduce systematic errors by coupling to initial kinematic differences between the…
We report a test of the universality of free fall (UFF) by comparing the gravity acceleration of the $^{87}$Rb atoms in $m_F=+1$ versus that in $m_F=-1$, where the corresponding spin orientations are opposite. A Mach-Zehnder-type atom…
Does gravity influence local measurements? We use a dual-species atom interferometer with $2\,\text{s}$ of free-fall time to measure the relative acceleration between $^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb wave packets in the Earth's gravitational field.…
It is a commonly stated that the acceleration sensitivity of an atom interferometer is proportional to the space-time area enclosed between the two interfering arms. Here we derive the interferometric phase shift for an extensive class of…
Despite being the dominant force of nature on large scales, gravity remains relatively elusive to experimental measurement. Many questions remain, such as its behavior at small scales or its role in phenomena ascribed to dark matter and…