https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02135-y
experimental physics
Study of the neutron quantum states in the gravity field
1
Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP156, 38042, Grenoble Cedex 9, France
2
Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia
3
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, IN2P3-CNRS-UJF, Grenoble, France
4
Lebedev Institute, Moscow, Russia
5
University of Mainz, Germany
6
University of Heidelberg, Germany
7
DESY, Hamburg, Germany
8
Université Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble, France
* e-mail: nesvizhevsky@ill.fr
We have studied neutron quantum states in the potential well formed by the earth’s gravitational field and a horizontal mirror. The estimated characteristic sizes of the neutron wave functions in the two lowest quantum states correspond to expectations with an experimental accuracy. A position-sensitive neutron detector with an extra-high spatial resolution of 
m was developed and tested for this particular experiment, to be used to measure the spatial density distribution in a standing neutron wave above a mirror for a set of some of the lowest quantum states. The present experiment can be used to set an upper limit for an additional short-range fundamental force. We studied methodological uncertainties as well as the feasibility of improving further the accuracy of this experiment.
© Springer-Verlag, 2005
