Exact phase shifts for atom interferometry

Abstract

In the case of an external Hamiltonian at most quadratic in position and momentum operators, we use the ABCD formulation of atom optics to establish an exact analytical phase shift expression for atom interferometers with arbitrary spatial or temporal beam splitter configurations. This result is expressed in terms of coordinates and momenta of the wave packet centers at the interaction vertices only.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.