He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase in atom interferometry

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental observation of the He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase in atom interferometry, demonstrating a subtle quantum effect related to electric dipoles in magnetic fields.

Contribution

First experimental verification of the He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase using atom interferometry with high phase sensitivity.

Findings

Measured phase difference up to 27 mrad

Observed phase differs by 31% from theoretical prediction

Experiment confirms the existence of the topological phase

Abstract

We report the first experimental test of the topological phase predicted by He and McKellar and by Wilkens in 1993: this phase, which appears when an electric dipole propagates in a magnetic field, is connected to the Aharonov-Casher effect by electric-magnetic duality. The He-McKellar-Wilkens phase is quite small, at most 27 mrad in our experiment, and this experiment requires the high phase sensitivity of our atom interferometer with spatially separated arms as well as symmetry reversals such as the direction of the electric and magnetic fields. The measured value of the He-McKellar-Wilkens phase differs by 31% from its theoretical value, a difference possibly due to some as yet uncontrolled systematic errors.