Investigation of the Neutron Quantum States in the Earth's Gravitational Field.
We studied the 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 two lowest quantum states correspond to their expectations with an accuracy of ≈25 %. The spatial density distribution in a standing neutron wave above a mirror was measured for a set of a few lowest quantum states. A position-sensitive neutron detector with an extra high spatial resolution of 1 μm to 2 μm was developed and tested for this particular task. Although this experiment was not designed or optimized to search for an additional short-range force, nevertheless it allowed us to slightly improve the published boundary in the nanometer range of characteristic distances. We studied systematical uncertainties in the chosen "flow-through" method as well as the feasibility to improve further the accuracy in this experiment.
ILL, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, Grenoble, France.
V V
VV
Nesvizhevsky
ILL, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, Grenoble, France.
A K
AK
Petukhov
ILL, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, Grenoble, France.
H G
HG
Börner
PNPI, Orlova Roscha, Gatchina, Leningrad reg., Russia.
T A
TA
Baranova
PNPI, Orlova Roscha, Gatchina, Leningrad reg., Russia.
A M
AM
Gagarski
PNPI, Orlova Roscha, Gatchina, Leningrad reg., Russia.
G A
GA
Petrov
LPSC, 53 avenue des Martyrs, Grenoble, France.
K V
KV
Protasov
LPI, 53 Lenin prospect, Moscow, Russia.
A Yu
AY
Voronin
University of Mainz, 21 Saarstr., Germany.
S
S
Baeßler
University of Heidelberg, 1 Grabengasse, Germany.
H
H
Abele
DESY, Hamburg, Germany.
A
A
Westphal
UJF, BP 53, Grenoble, France.
L
L
Lucovac
gravitation; neutrons; quantum mechanics