Violation of the weak equivalence principle via the time of arrival operator

Authors

  • Philip Caesar Mason Flores ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman
  • Eric Alvarez Galapon ⋅ PH National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman

Abstract

The weak equivalence principle for quantum systems states that particles with the same velocity wavefunction behave identically in free fall implying that the TOA distribution of different particles should be identical regardless of mass as long as they have the same initial momentum p0. This leads us to study the distribution of the first time of arrival for spinless particles fired upward using the theory of quantum time of arrival operators. We start by constructing an appropriate time of arrival operator that is conjugate with the system Hamiltonian using Weyl quantization. The time of arrival distribution was then constructed and shown to be mass-dependent, implying violation of the weak equivalence principle.

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Article ID

SPP-2018-1D-04

Section

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics

Published

2018-05-23

How to Cite

[1]
PCM Flores and EA Galapon, Violation of the weak equivalence principle via the time of arrival operator, Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas 36, SPP-2018-1D-04 (2018). URL: https://proceedings.spp-online.org/article/view/SPP-2018-1D-04.