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Space-Time Area in Atom Interferometry

Quantum Physics 2014-07-22 v2

Abstract

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 interferometers, and explore the circumstances in which only the inertial terms contribute. We then analyse various configurations in light of this geometric interpretation of the interferometric phase shift.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1312.2713,
  title  = {Space-Time Area in Atom Interferometry},
  author = {Gordon D. McDonald and Carlos C. N. Kuhn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.2713},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

23 pages, 9 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:24:24.543Z