Precision tests of General Relativity with Matter Waves

Abstract

We review the physics of atoms and clocks in weakly curved spacetime, and how each may be used to test the Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) in the context of the minimal Standard Model Extension (mSME). We find that conventional clocks and matter-wave interferometers are sensitive to the same kinds of EEP-violating physics. We show that the analogy between matter-waves and clocks remains true for systems beyond the semiclassical limit. We quantitatively compare the experimentally observable signals for EEP violation in matter-wave experiments. We find that comparisons of ${}^6$Li and ${}^7$Li are particularly sensitive to such anomalies. Tests involving unstable isotopes, for which matter-wave interferometers are well suited, may further improve the sensitivity of EEP tests.

Comments: Conference Proceedings for talk given in January, 2011 at the Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics. Submitted to the Journal of Modern Optics