Elsevier

Physica B: Condensed Matter

Volumes 385–386, Part 2, 15 November 2006, Pages 1356-1358
Physica B: Condensed Matter

Neutron interferometry: The pioneering contributions of Samuel A. Werner☆

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Abstract

In 1975, Sam Werner, while on the staff of the Scientific Laboratory of the Ford Motor Company, and his collaborators from Purdue University, Roberto Colella and Albert Overhauser, carried out one of the pioneering experiments in neutron interferometry at the 2 MW University of Michigan research reactor. It was the famous COW Experiment [Colella et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 34 (1975) 1472] on gravitationally induced quantum interference. Shortly thereafter he moved to the University of Missouri in Columbia, to set up a program of neutron scattering research, including neutron interferometry.

In the 25 years until his retirement a large number of beautiful experiments have been performed by Sam, with his group, his numerous students and many international collaborators. This work and its history are briefly reviewed in this paper.

Section snippets

The earliest experiments in neutron interferometry

Following the COW experiment [1], which soon achieved legendary status , with numerous mentions in textbooks and popular journals, another quite notable experiment was performed by Sam and his colleagues from Purdue University and the Ford Motor Company Research Laboratories, namely the one on the observation of the phase shift of neutrons due to precession in a magnetic field [2]. This was one of three separate experiments on the same subject, the other two being by Helmut Rauch and his

Collaborations with the Melbourne Group

The first collaboration resulted in back-to-back papers in Physical Review Letters in 1983, measuring and explaining the longitudinal coherence of thermal neutron beams [11], [12]. There followed the demonstration of the so-called null Fizeau effect for neutrons in moving matter [13], by the full Missouri–Melbourne collaboration, including Sam's then student M. Arif and the Melbourne students A. Cimmino and W. Hamilton. (A somewhat unexpected consequence of this close collaboration was that our

Collaborations with the Vienna and other groups

From 1990 onwards, Sam began another fruitful collaboration, this time with Helmut Rauch's group, giving rise to several more beautiful experiments and several more noteworthy papers. These included the Phase Echo Effect [19], the effects of Spectral Filtering [20], Spectral Modulation and Squeezed States [21], observation of Berry's Geometric Phase [22] and the observation of Multi-photon Exchange of Polarized Neutrons [23]. There were also several precise interferometric measurements of

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    ☆

    Paper presented as part of the Festschrift in honour of Samuel A. Werner.

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