Insider Brief
Researchers directly measured gravity’s predicted effect on the quantum phase of freely falling atoms, finding Einstein’s equivalence principle consistent with quantum mechanics under the tested conditions.
The Quantum Galileo Interferometer split ultracold rubidium atoms into two quantum paths, holding one stationary while the other fell freely before recombining them to measure their phase difference.
The experiment neither unifies gravity with quantum mechanics nor proves gravity is quantum, but the technique could support future tests using heavier objects such as nanodiamonds.
PRESS RELEASE — An international team including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Sir Roger Penrose has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The result shows that a fundamental principle at the heart of Einstein’s theory of gravity remains consistent with the behaviour of matter in the quantum world. The study, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The University of Ulm and the University of Oxford, has been published today (2 Sept) in Science Advances.
