Proper time in atom interferometers: Diffractive versus specular mirrors

Abstract

We compare a conventional Mach-Zehnder light-pulse atom interferometer based on diffractive mirrors with one that uses specular reflection. In contrast to diffractive mirrors that generate a symmetric configuration, specular mirrors realized, for example, by evanescent fields lead under the influence of gravity to an asymmetric geometry. In such an arrangement the interferometer phase contains nonrelativistic signatures of proper time.

7 pages, 1 figure, 1 table

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• Post-Newtonian Hamiltonian description of an atom in a weak gravitational field
• Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox
• Gravitational Redshift Tests with Atomic Clocks and Atom Interferometers
• Atom-interferometric test of the universality of gravitational redshift and free fall
• Stern-Gerlach Interferometry with the Atom Chip
• Atomic clock interferometry using optical tweezers
• Post-Newtonian Description of Quantum Systems in Gravitational Fields
• Bose-Einstein condensates in microgravity and fundamental tests of gravity