Bonn 2000 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 7: Quanteneffekte II
Q 7.6: Talk
Tuesday, April 4, 2000, 15:30–15:45, HS XI
Gravitationally induced quantum interference measurements with the very-cold-neutron interferometer — •Gerbrand van der Zouw1, Peter Høghøj2, Roland Gähler2, Peter Geltenbort2, and Anton Zeilinger1 — 1Institut für Experimentalphysik, Univ. Wien, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090, Wien, Österreich — 2Institut Laue-Langevin, Ave. des Martyrs, BP 152, F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
In the so-called COW experiments a neutron interferometer is tilted around its axis, resulting in a phase shift due to the difference in gravitational potential acting along the different beam paths. A whole series of experiments using single silicon crystal neutron interferometers, starting with the original experiment by Colella, Overhauser and Werner, consistently show a discrepancy between experiment and theory, after correction for dynamical diffraction effects and other known systematic errors.
This situation prompted us to investigate these effects with our interferometer for very cold neutrons at ILL. Using this different type of interferometer we recently obtained results [1] that were in agreement with theory within the accuracy of 1 excluding some, but not all, of the earlier results. We will present here the latest results of a new series of measurements with a higher accuracy. We can now exclude all earlier silicon crystal interferometer results and confirm theory at the same time.
[1] M. Weber, PhD Thesis, Universität Innsbruck, 1997. G. van der Zouw et al., Nucl. Instr. and Methods A, 1999