Invited Talk: Observation of a gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect and its implications for quantum superpositions of Newtonian gravitational fields

Mark Kasevich
Stanford University, USA

The gravitational interaction of a tungsten source mass with atomic wavepackets has been observed in an atom deBroglie wave interferometer, in a regime where the separation distance between the interfering wavepackets is comparable to their distance to the source mass.  We will discuss this experiment in the context of Aharonov-Bohm effects.  We will describe the relevance of these results to observation of quantum superpositions of Newtonian gravitational fields.