Matter wave interferometry

Inertial sensors are useful devices in both science and industry. Higher precision sensors could find practical scientific applications in the areas of general relativity (Chow et ah, 1985), geodesy and geology. Important applications of such devices occur also in the field of navigation, surveying and analysis of earth structures. Matter-wave interferometry has recently shown its potential to be an extremely sensitive probe for inertial forces (Clauser, 1988). First, neutron interferometers have been used to measure the Earth rotation (Colella et ah, 1975) and the acceleration due to gravity (Werner et ah, 1979) in the end of the seventies. In 1991, atom interference techniques have been used in... 

J. P. Vigier, New theoretical implications of Neutron interferometric double resonance experiments, Int. Workshop on Matter Wave Interferometry in the Light of Schrodinger s Wave Mechanics (Vienna, Austria, Sept. 14-16, 1987) Physica B, C 151(1-2), 386-392 (1988), ISSN 0378-4363 (Conf. sponsor Hitachi Erwin Schrodinger Gesellschaft Siemens et al.). 

The concerted discussion of the topics outlined above should help us advance the new paradigm that addresses our abilities to diagnose and manipulate the entangled states of complex quantum objects and their robustness against decoherence. These abilities are required for quantum information (QI) applications or matter-wave interferometry in molecular, semiconducting or superconducting systems. On the fundamental level, this book may help establish the notion of dynamical information exchange between quantum systems and chart in detail the route from unitarity to classicality. 

Precise control of matter wave interferometry is foreseen. 

Atomic particles moving with the momentum p can be characterized by their de Broglie wavelength A, = h/p. If beams of such particles can be split into coherent partial beams, which are recombined after traveling different path lengths, matter-wave interferometry becomes possible. This has been demonstrated extensively for electrons and neutrons, and recently also for neutral atoms [1278, 1279]. 

Matter-wave interferometry has found wide applications for testing basic laws of physics. One advantage of interferometry with massive particles, for instance, is the possibility of studying gravitational effects. Compared to the neutron interferometer, atomic interferometry can provide atomic fluxes that are many orders of magnitude higher than thermalized neutron fluxes from reactors. The sensitivity is therefore higher and the costs are much lower. 

Matter-wave interferometry with material structures... 

The matter-wave interferometry of large molecules is another a very interesting line of research, allowing one to investigate the wave properties of massive particles... 

Therefore, it has been shown convincingly that electrodynamics is an 0(3) invariant theory, and so the 0(3) gauge invariance must also be found in experiments with matter waves, such as matter waves from electrons, in which there is no electromagnetic potential. One such experiment is the Sagnac effect with electrons, which was reviewed in Ref. 44, and another is Young interferometry with electron waves. For both experiments, Eq. (584) becomes... 

C. Borde in Matter-wave interferometers a synthetic approach , in Atom Interferometry, edited by P. Berman (Academic Press, 1997), pp. 257-297... 

Keywords Quantum optics, matter waves, molecule interferometry, decoherence, fullerenes... 

The experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation has shown that this phenomenon makes it possible to construct an atom laser by releasing a condensate from an atom trap (Mewes et al. 1997). An atom laser is a source of coherent collimated atomic de Broglie waves, which was nicely demonstrated in the observation of interference between two Bose-Einstein condensates (Andrews et al. 1997). Like a conventional optical laser emitting coherent light waves, an atom laser emits coherent waves of atomic matter. This means that atom lasers may have an impact on coherent atom optics, which may lead to new achievements in atom interferometry, holography, and microscopy. The development of coherent atom optics may in turn lead to new fundamental observations, including nonlinear and nonclassical effects in coherent-matter media. 

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