RAMSEY FRINGES IN ATOMIC INTERFEROMETRY - MEASURABILITY OF THE INFLUENCE OF SPACE-TIME CURVATURE

The influence of space-time curvature on quantum matter which can be t heoretically described by covariant wave equations has not been experi mentally established yet. In this paper we analyze in detail the suita bility of the Ramsey atom beam interferometer for the measurement of t he phase shift caused by the Riemannian curvature of the Earth or alte rnatively of two parallel oriented lead blocks. It appears that for th e lead blocks the detection should be possible with realistic modifica tions of existing devices within the near future. For the Earth's grav itational field the experimental difficulties are too big. The paper i s divided into two parts. The first one is concerned with the derivati on of general relativistic correction terms to the Pauli equation star ting from the fully covariant Dirac equation and their physical interp retation. The inertial effects of acceleration and rotation are includ ed. The calculation makes use of Fermi coordinates. In the second part we calculate the shift of the Ramsey fringes for the two different so urces of curvature and examine various possibilities to enlarge the se nsitivity of the apparatus to space-time curvature. Since the two part s may be more or less interesting for physicists with different resear ch fields they are written in such a way that each one may be read wit hout much reference to the other one.