Testing Atom and Neutron Neutrality with Atom Interferometry

TL;DR

This paper proposes an atom-interferometry experiment utilizing the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect to detect atom and neutron charges at unprecedented sensitivity levels, significantly surpassing current laboratory limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach that improves the sensitivity of charge neutrality tests for atoms and neutrons by several orders of magnitude.

Findings

Detects atom charge at 10^{-28}e level

Probes neutron charges down to 10^{-28}e

Improves current bounds by 8 and 7 orders of magnitude respectively

Abstract

We propose an atom-interferometry experiment based on the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect which detects an atom charge at the 10^{-28}e level, and improves the current laboratory limits by 8 orders of magnitude. This setup independently probes neutron charges down to 10^{-28}e, 7 orders of magnitude below current bounds.