Gravitational Redshift Tests with Atomic Clocks and Atom Interferometers

Abstract

Atomic interference experiments can probe the gravitational redshift via the internal energy splitting of atoms and thus give direct access to test the universality of the coupling between matter-energy and gravity at different spacetime points. By including possible violations of the equivalence principle in a fully quantized treatment of all degrees of freedom, we characterize how the sensitivity to gravitational redshift violations arises in atomic clocks and atom interferometers, as well as their underlying limitations. Specifically, we show that: (i.) Contributions beyond linear order to trapping potentials lead to such a sensitivity of trapped atomic clocks. (ii.) While Bragg-type interferometers, even with a superposition of internal states, with state-independent, linear interaction potentials are at first insensitive to gravitational redshift tests, modified configurations, for example by relaunching the atoms, can mimic such tests tests under certain conditions. (iii.) Guided atom interferometers are comparable to atomic clocks. (iv.) Internal transitions lead to state-dependent interaction potentials through which light-pulse atom interferometers can become sensitive to gravitational redshift violations.

21 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (14)

• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Matter-wave interferometry in a double well on an atom chip
• Systematic evaluation of an atomic clock at 2e-18 total uncertainty
• An ${}^{27}$Al${}^{+}$ quantum-logic clock with systematic uncertainty below $10^{-18}$
• Quantum Test of the Universality of Free Fall
• Equivalence Principle Violations and Couplings of a Light Dilaton
• General Relativistic Effects in Atom Interferometry
• Test of the Gravitational Redshift with Galileo Satellites in an Eccentric Orbit
• Enhancing the area of a Raman atom interferometer using a versatile double-diffraction technique
• Atom gravimeters and gravitational redshift
• Tests of local position invariance using continuously running atomic clocks
• A trapped atom interferometer with ultracold Sr atoms
• Reply to: Atom gravimeters and the gravitational redshift
• Proper time in atom interferometers: Diffractive versus specular mirrors

Cited by in corpus (27)

• Universality-of-clock-rates test using atom interferometry with $T^3$ scaling
• Light propagation and atom interferometry in gravity and dilaton fields
• Closed-Loop Dual-Atom-Interferometer Inertial Sensor with Continuous Cold Atomic Beams
• Atomic diffraction from single-photon transitions in gravity and Standard-Model extensions
• Gravitational redshift induces quantum interference
• Exploring the dynamical interplay between mass-energy equivalence, interactions and entanglement in an optical lattice clock
• Clock Transitions Versus Bragg Diffraction in Atom-interferometric Dark-matter Detection
• Atom interferometers in weakly curved spacetimes using Bragg diffraction and Bloch oscillations
• Quantum generalisation of Einstein's Equivalence Principle can be verified with entangled clocks as quantum reference frames
• Quantized mass-energy effects in an Unruh-DeWitt detector
• Introduction to gravitational redshift of quantum photons propagating in curved spacetime
• Quantum field theory for multipolar composite bosons with mass defect and relativistic corrections
• Atomic clock interferometry using optical tweezers
• Gravitational time dilation as a resource in quantum sensing
• Finite Pulse-Time Effects in Long-Baseline Quantum Clock Interferometry
• A high-flux cold-atom source utilising a grating atom chip
• Witnessing mass-energy equivalence with trapped atom interferometers
• Geometric phase amplification in a clock interferometer for enhanced metrology
• Unified laboratory-frame analysis of atomic gravitational-wave sensors
• Josephson's effect in the Schwarzschild background
• Light-pulse atom interferometry with entangled atom-optical elements
• Magic wavelength at 477 nm for the strontium clock transition
• General Relativistic Center-of-Mass Coordinates for Composite Quantum Particles
• Local Measurement Scheme of Gravitational Curvature using Atom Interferometers
• Interferometry of Atomic Matter Waves in the Cold Atom Lab onboard the International Space Station
• Sequantial large momentum transfer exploiting rectangular Raman pulses
• Geometric phase in anisotropic Kepler problem: Perspective for realization in Rydberg atoms