arXiv · 2005.13264
Relativistic quantum bouncing particles in a homogeneous gravitational field
Abstract
In this paper, we study the relativistic effect on the wave functions for a bouncing particle in a gravitational field. Motivated by the equivalence principle, we investigate the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations in Rindler coordinates with the boundary conditions mimicking a uniformly accelerated mirror in Minkowski space. In the nonrelativistic limit, all these models in the comoving frame reduce to the familiar eigenvalue problem for the Schrödinger equation with a fixed floor in a linear gravitational potential, as expected. We find that the transition frequency between two energy levels of a bouncing Dirac particle is greater than the counterpart of a Klein-Gordon particle, while both are greater than their nonrelativistic limit. The different corrections to eigen-energies of particles of different nature are associated with the different behaviors of their wave functions around the mirror boundary.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
Ar Rohim, Kazushige Ueda, Kazuhiro Yamamoto, Shih-Yuin Lin. 2022-03-22. Relativistic quantum bouncing particles in a homogeneous gravitational field. https://doi.org/10.1142/s021827182150098x
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.