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On free fall of fermions and antifermions

Emelyanov, Viacheslav A. 1
1 Institut für Theoretische Physik (ITP), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract:

We propose a model describing spin-half quantum particles in curved spacetime in the framework of quantum field theory. Our model is based on embodying Einstein's equivalence principle and general covariance in the definition of quantum-particle states. With this model at hand, we compute several observables which characterise spin-half quantum particles in a gravitational field. In particular, we find that spin precesses in a normal Fermi frame, even in the absence of torsion. The effect appears to be complementary to free-fall non-universality we have recently reported about for spinless quantum particles. Furthermore, we find that quantum-particle gravitational-potential energy is insensitive to wave-packet spreading in the Earth's gravitational field, that is responsible for the non-universality of free fall in quantum theory. This theoretical result provides another channel for the experimental study of our quantum-particle model by using gravitational spectrometers. Finally, we also find that (elementary) fermions and antifermions are indistinguishable in gravity.


Volltext §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000163716
Veröffentlicht am 02.11.2023
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Theoretische Physik (ITP)
Publikationstyp Forschungsbericht/Preprint
Publikationsjahr 2022
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator KITopen-ID: 1000163716
Umfang 26 S.
Vorab online veröffentlicht am 13.10.2022
Nachgewiesen in Dimensions
arXiv
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