Quantum states of neutrons in the Earth's gravitational field

Valery V. Nesvizhevsky (), Hans G. Börner, Alexander K. Petukhov, Hartmut Abele, Stefan Baeßler, Frank J. Rueß, Thilo Stöferle, Alexander Westphal, Alexei M. Gagarski, Guennady A. Petrov and Alexander V. Strelkov
Additional contact information
Valery V. Nesvizhevsky: Institute Laue-Langevin
Hans G. Börner: Institute Laue-Langevin
Alexander K. Petukhov: Institute Laue-Langevin
Hartmut Abele: University of Heidelberg
Stefan Baeßler: University of Heidelberg
Frank J. Rueß: University of Heidelberg
Thilo Stöferle: University of Heidelberg
Alexander Westphal: University of Heidelberg
Alexei M. Gagarski: Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Orlova Roscha
Guennady A. Petrov: Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Orlova Roscha
Alexander V. Strelkov: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

Nature, 2002, vol. 415, issue 6869, 297-299

Abstract: Abstract The discrete quantum properties of matter are manifest in a variety of phenomena. Any particle that is trapped in a sufficiently deep and wide potential well is settled in quantum bound states. For example, the existence of quantum states of electrons in an electromagnetic field is responsible for the structure of atoms16, and quantum states of nucleons in a strong nuclear field give rise to the structure of atomic nuclei17. In an analogous way, the gravitational field should lead to the formation of quantum states. But the gravitational force is extremely weak compared to the electromagnetic and nuclear force, so the observation of quantum states of matter in a gravitational field is extremely challenging. Because of their charge neutrality and long lifetime, neutrons are promising candidates with which to observe such an effect. Here we report experimental evidence for gravitational quantum bound states of neutrons. The particles are allowed to fall towards a horizontal mirror which, together with the Earth's gravitational field, provides the necessary confining potential well. Under such conditions, the falling neutrons do not move continuously along the vertical direction, but rather jump from one height to another, as predicted by quantum theory1,2,3.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/415297a Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6869:d:10.1038_415297a

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/415297a

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().