On the quantum analogue of Galileo's leaning tower experiment

Md Manirul Ali, A. S. Majumdar, Dipankar Home, Alok Kumar Pan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The quantum analogue of Galileo's leaning tower experiment is revisited using wave packets evolving under the gravitational potential. We first calculate the position detection probabilities for particles projected upwards against gravity around the classical turning point and also around the point of initial projection, which exhibit mass dependence at both these points. We then compute the mean arrival time of freely falling particles using the quantum probability current, which also turns out to be mass dependent. The mass dependence of both the position detection probabilities and the mean arrival time vanish in the limit of large mass. Thus, compatibility between the weak equivalence principle and quantum mechanics is recovered in the macroscopic limit of the latter.

Original languageEnglish
Article number024
JournalClassical and Quantum Gravity
Volume23
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006 Nov 21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'On the quantum analogue of Galileo's leaning tower experiment'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this