Related papers: Testing the equivalence principle with time-diffra…
Using a \emph{gedanken} experiment providing presumably a minimal inaccuracy the uncertainty contributions to the space-time measurement are precisely evaluated for clock and mirror respectively. The resulting expression of minimal…
We describe space--time fluctuations by means of small fluctuations of the metric on a given background metric. From a minimally coupled Klein--Gordon equation we obtain within a weak-field approximation up to second order and an averaging…
Since the advent of quantum mechanics we have mainly been concerned with its predictions from the perspective of an external observer. This is in strong contrast to the theory of general relativity, where the physics is governed by the…
Einstein's Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), the universality of free fall, is a fundamental component of general relativity and other metric theories of gravity. Its validity can be tested through the post-Newtonian parameter gamma, which…
Einstein`s equivalence principle states the complete physical equivalence of a gravitational field and corresponding inertial field in an accelerated reference frame. However, to what extent the equivalence principle remains valid in…
Atom interferometry tests of universality of free fall based on the differential measurement of two different atomic species provide a useful complement to those based on macroscopic masses. However, when striving for the highest possible…
The weak equivalence principle is one of the cornerstone of general relativity. Its validity has been tested with impressive precision in the Solar System, with experiments involving baryonic matter and light. However, on cosmological…
We investigate the interplay between gravity and the quantum coherence present in the state of a pulse of light propagating in curved spacetime. We first introduce an operational way to distinguish between the overall shift in the pulse…
We have observed the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms on a vibrating mirror potential. The matter wave packet bounces back at normal incidence on a blue-detuned evanescent light field after a 3.6 mm free fall. The…
Prompted by recent experimental developments, a theory of surface scattering of fast atoms at grazing incidence is developed. The theory gives rise to a quantum mechanical limit for ordered surfaces that describes coherent diffraction peaks…
In this work, a precise quantum formulation of Einstein's Equivalence Principle (EEP) is developed within the framework of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. By employing detailed analyses in both the Schr\"odinger and Heisenberg pictures,…
A satisfactory theory of quantum gravity will very likely require modification of our classical perception of space-time, perhaps by giving it a 'foamy' structure at scales of order the Planck length. This is expected to modify the…
The time evolution of a quantum wave packet in the linear gravity potential is known as Quantum Bouncing Ball. The qBounce collaboration recently observed such a system by dropping wave packets of ultracold neutrons by a height of roughly…
Feynman's laws of quantum dynamics are concisely stated, discussed in comparison with other formulations of quantum mechanics and applied to selected problems in the physical optics of photons and massive particles as well as flavour…
We analyze the dynamics of neutrino Gaussian wave-packets, the damping of flavor oscillations and decoherence effects within the framework of extended theories of gravity. In particular, we show that, when the underlying description of the…
We consider possible tests of the Einstein Equivalence Principle for physical systems in which quantum-mechanical vacuum energies cannot be neglected. Specific tests include a search for the manifestation of non-metric effects in Lamb-shift…
We study the superposition of primordial massive particles and compute the associated decoherence time scale in the radiation dominated universe. We observe that for lighter primordial particles with masses up to $10^7\,\rm{kg}$, the…
Equivalence principles played a central role in the development of general relativity. Furthermore, they have provided operative procedures for testing the validity of general relativity, or constraining competing theories of gravitation.…
Based on parity violation in the weak interaction and evidences from neutrino oscillation, a natural choice is that neutrinos may be spacelike particles with a tiny mass. To keep causality for spacelike particles, a kinematic time under a…
Assuming the validity of the equivalence principle in the quantum regime, we argue that one of the assumptions of the usual definition of quantum mechanics, namely separation between the ``classical'' detector and the ``quantum'' system,…