Tests of fundamental quantum mechanics and dark interactions with low-energy neutrons
Tests of fundamental quantum mechanics and dark interactions with low-energy neutrons
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DOI：
10.1038/s42254-021-00298-2
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发表时间：
2020-12
影响因子：
38.5
通讯作者：
S. Sponar;R. Sedmik;M. Pitschmann;H. Abele;Y. Hasegawa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Sponar;R. Sedmik;M. Pitschmann;H. Abele;Y. Hasegawa
在已知的粒子中，中子是特殊的，因为它提供了实验途径来获得所有四种基本力和广泛的假设相互作用。尽管不稳定，但自由中子的寿命足够长，可以在干涉、光谱和散射实验中用作探测低能尺度的测试粒子。早在20世纪70年代，量子力学的基本概念就已经被认可，可以用硅完美单晶在中子干涉测量中进行测试。除了能够测试不确定关系或贝尔不等式之外，中子还提供了观察引力和假设的暗力对扩展物质波函数的影响的机会。由于最近发现宇宙学的理解不一致，以及量子力学和广义相对论之间的不相容性，这样的测试变得重要起来。因此，低能中子实验是探索基础物理学不可或缺的工具，也是粒子对撞机的一种补充方法。在这篇评论中，我们讨论了在这个低能物理前沿使用的历史和实验方法，并概述了量子力学关系和暗能量相互作用的当前界限和限制。
Among the known particles, the neutron is special because it provides experimental access to all of the four fundamental forces and a wide range of hypothetical interactions. Despite being unstable, free neutrons live long enough to be used as test particles in interferometric, spectroscopic and scattering experiments probing low-energy scales. Recognized already in the 1970s, fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics can be tested in neutron interferometry using silicon perfect single crystals. Besides enabling tests of uncertainty relations or Bell inequalities, neutrons offer the opportunity to observe the effects of gravity and hypothetical dark forces acting on extended matter wavefunctions. Such tests gained importance in the light of recent discoveries of inconsistencies in the understanding of cosmology and the incompatibility between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Experiments with low-energy neutrons are, thus, indispensable tools for probing fundamental physics and represent a complementary approach to particle colliders. In this Review, we discuss the history and experimental methods used at this low-energy frontier of physics and overview the current bounds and limits on quantum mechanical relations and dark energy interactions.