A GEOMETRICAL QUANTUM PHASE IN NEWTONIAN GRAVITY

The quantum mechanical behaviour of a particle moving in a Newtonian p otential is investigated. It is found that the scalar potential can gi ve rise to interference effects for simply connected regions in which the gravitational force on the particle vanishes. A matter wave interf erometry experiment is proposed to verify the existence of a geometric al quantum phase, which can be used to explicitly test the Dirichlet b oundary conditions in Newtonian gravity. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevie r Science B.V.