Abstract
Ultracold neutrons confined in the Earth’s gravitational field display quantized energy levels that have been observed for over a decade. In recent resonance spectroscopy experiments [T. Jenke et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 468 (2011)], the transition between two such gravitational quantum states was driven by the mechanical oscillation of the plates that confine the neutrons. Here we show that by applying a sinusoidal modulation with slowly varying frequency (chirp), the neutrons can be brought to higher excited states by climbing the energy levels one by one. The proposed experiment should make it possible to observe the quantum-classical transition that occurs at high neutron energies. Furthermore, it provides a technique to realize superpositions of gravitational quantum states, to be used for precision tests of gravity at short distances.
- Received 20 November 2015
- Corrected 31 January 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.025016
© 2017 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
31 January 2017