Coherent multi-photon exchange between a neutron and an arbitrary oscillating magnetic field

Full text: If a quantum particle passes a finite volume of a purely time-dependent potential, coherent emission and absorption of energy takes place. Due to Zeeman interaction, this situation can be realized with neutrons crossing an oscillating magnetic field. We solved the corresponding Schroedinger equation for arbitrary periodic potentials and compared the results with the measured amplitudes obtained by time-dependent neutron interferometry. Fourier transformation of the time resolved interferogram allows the measurement of very small energy amounts of orders of magnitude of the energy of individual photons (i.e. several peV). Therefore, we also perform the quantization of the field to enable a complete understanding of the underlying physical processes in terms of single- and multi-photon exchanges between the neutron and the magnetic field. (author)