Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon
The effect of the Earth's gravitational potential on a quantum wave function has only been observed for massive particles. In this paper we present a scheme to measure a gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon traveling in a coherent superposition along different paths of an opti...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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IOP Publishing
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110023 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0219-9706 |
| _version_ | 1811078485858320384 |
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| author | Hilweg, Christopher Massa, Francesco Walther, Philip Chrusciel, Piotr T Martynov, Denis Mavalvala, Nergis |
| author2 | LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| author_facet | LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Hilweg, Christopher Massa, Francesco Walther, Philip Chrusciel, Piotr T Martynov, Denis Mavalvala, Nergis |
| author_sort | Hilweg, Christopher |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The effect of the Earth's gravitational potential on a quantum wave function has only been observed for massive particles. In this paper we present a scheme to measure a gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon traveling in a coherent superposition along different paths of an optical fiber interferometer. To create a measurable signal for the interaction between the static gravitational potential and the wave function of the photon, we propose a variant of a conventional Mach–Zehnder interferometer. We show that the predicted relative phase difference of 10⁻⁵ rad is measurable even in the presence of fiber noise, provided additional stabilization techniques are implemented for each arm of a large-scale fiber interferometer. Effects arising from the rotation of the Earth and the material properties of the fibers are analysed. We conclude that optical fiber interferometry is a feasible way to measure the gravitationally induced phase shift on a single-photon wave function, and thus provides a means to corroborate the equivalence of the energy of the photon and its effective gravitational mass. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:00:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110023 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:00:43Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1100232022-10-01T00:33:29Z Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon Hilweg, Christopher Massa, Francesco Walther, Philip Chrusciel, Piotr T Martynov, Denis Mavalvala, Nergis LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Martynov, Denis Mavalvala, Nergis The effect of the Earth's gravitational potential on a quantum wave function has only been observed for massive particles. In this paper we present a scheme to measure a gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon traveling in a coherent superposition along different paths of an optical fiber interferometer. To create a measurable signal for the interaction between the static gravitational potential and the wave function of the photon, we propose a variant of a conventional Mach–Zehnder interferometer. We show that the predicted relative phase difference of 10⁻⁵ rad is measurable even in the presence of fiber noise, provided additional stabilization techniques are implemented for each arm of a large-scale fiber interferometer. Effects arising from the rotation of the Earth and the material properties of the fibers are analysed. We conclude that optical fiber interferometry is a feasible way to measure the gravitationally induced phase shift on a single-photon wave function, and thus provides a means to corroborate the equivalence of the energy of the photon and its effective gravitational mass. 2017-06-19T19:24:10Z 2017-06-19T19:24:10Z 2017-03 2017-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1367-2630 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110023 Hilweg, Christopher; Massa, Francesco; Martynov, Denis; Mavalvala, Nergis; Chruściel, Piotr T and Walther, Philip. “Gravitationally Induced Phase Shift on a Single Photon.” New Journal of Physics 19, no. 3 (March 2017): 033028 © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0219-9706 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aa638f New Journal of Physics Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing IOP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Hilweg, Christopher Massa, Francesco Walther, Philip Chrusciel, Piotr T Martynov, Denis Mavalvala, Nergis Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title | Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title_full | Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title_fullStr | Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title_short | Gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| title_sort | gravitationally induced phase shift on a single photon |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110023 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0219-9706 |
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