Neutron interference in the Earth's gravitational field

TL;DR

This paper analyzes neutron interference experiments in Earth's gravity, deriving explicit phase shift expressions that align with experimental results and incorporate relativistic corrections.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical derivation of neutron phase shifts in Earth's gravitational field using Stodolsky's method with relativistic corrections.

Findings

Derived explicit phase shift expressions consistent with experiments.

Confirmed agreement with semi-classical results after relativistic adjustments.

Validated the weak field approximation for neutron interference in Earth's gravity.

Abstract

This work relates to the famous experiments, performed in 1975 and 1979 by Werner et al., measuring neutron interference and neutron Sagnac effects in the earth's gravitational field. Employing the method of Stodolsky in its weak field approximation, explicit expressions are derived for the two phase shifts, which turn out to be in agreement with the experiments and with the previously obtained expressions derived from semi-classical arguments: these expressions are simply modified by relativistic correction factors.