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A precision measurement of the gravitational redshift by the interference of matter waves

Nature volume 463, pages 926–929 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

One of the central predictions of metric theories of gravity, such as general relativity, is that a clock in a gravitational potential U will run more slowly by a factor of 1 + U/c2, where c is the velocity of light, as compared to a similar clock outside the potential1. This effect, known as gravitational redshift, is important to the operation of the global positioning system2, timekeeping3,4 and future experiments with ultra-precise, space-based clocks5 (such as searches for variations in fundamental constants). The gravitational redshift has been measured using clocks on a tower6, an aircraft7 and a rocket8, currently reaching an accuracy of 7 × 10-5. Here we show that laboratory experiments based on quantum interference of atoms9,10 enable a much more precise measurement, yielding an accuracy of 7 × 10-9. Our result supports the view that gravity is a manifestation of space-time curvature, an underlying principle of general relativity that has come under scrutiny in connection with the search for a theory of quantum gravity11. Improving the redshift measurement is particularly important because this test has been the least accurate among the experiments that are required to support curved space-time theories1.

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Figure 1: Atom interferometer and Raman beam splitter.
Figure 2: Absolute determinations of the gravitational redshift.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Biraben, S.-w. Chiow, S. Herrmann, M. Hohensee, M. Kasevich, G. Tino and P. Wolf for discussions. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants 9320142, 0400866 and 0652332, by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Department of Energy. H.M. acknowledges support by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology under grant 60NANB9D9169. A.P. acknowledges support by the European Science Foundation’s EUROCORES program, the European Space Agency, and the German Space Agency DLR (grant DLR 50 WM 0346).

Author Contributions All authors made substantial contributions to this work. The manuscript was written by H.M. and S.C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, 366 Le Conte Hall MS 7300, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA,

    Holger Müller & Steven Chu

  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA ,

    Holger Müller & Steven Chu

  3. Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, 10117 Berlin, Germany ,

    Achim Peters

  4. US Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, District of Columbia 20585, USA,

    Steven Chu

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Correspondence to Holger Müller.

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Müller, H., Peters, A. & Chu, S. A precision measurement of the gravitational redshift by the interference of matter waves. Nature 463, 926–929 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08776

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