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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 24: Poster (permanent)

GR 24.4: Poster

Montag, 27. Februar 2012, 14:00–14:00, ZHG 002

Rydberg Atom in Gravity — •Aniket Agrawal — Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

Recently, Chiao predicted the quantum incompressibility of a falling Rydberg atom. A Hydrogen-like atom was considered in a very high n, l=m=n-1 state to calculate the effects of tidal gravitational forces on these states. The high values of quantum numbers ensure that gravitational effect is measurable on the *stretch* state. We consider a similar atom and derive the energy of a particular level under the influence of Newtonian gravity. A change in the frequency of observed transition is predicted for a freely falling Hydrogen atom. This change is calculated both in Newtonian gravity and in curved space.

We see that the change in energy of the electron under gravity also depends on its principal quantum number. Thus there will be a shift in the frequency of the photon emitted by an electron making an ordinary transition from the state n=100, l=99, m=99 to the state n=99,l=98,m=98. Though this shift is quite less to be observed on Earth, it is measurable in satellites in a highly elliptical orbit about the earth, by spectroscopic methods. A similar result was derived by Chiao recently using a different argument. We conclude that the effect described by Chiao will be masked to a very large extent by the effect calculated above. Such perturbations might be important in emission spectra of white dwarfs and neutron stars.