Ultracold neutrons in the low curvature limit: Remarks on the post-Newtonian effects

Ultracold neutrons are great experimental tools to explore the gravitational interaction in the regime of quantized states. From a theoretical perspective, starting from a Dirac equation in curved spacetime, we applied a perturbative scheme to systematically derive the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation that governs the evolution of the neutron's wave function in the Earth's gravitational field. At the lowest order, this procedure reproduces a Schrödinger system affected by a linear Newtonian potential, but corrections due to both curvature and relativistic effects are present. Here, we argue that one should be very careful when going one step further in the perturbative expansion. Proceeding methodically with the help of the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation and a formal post-Newtonian $1/c^2$ expansion, we derive the nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for a generic static spacetime. By employing Fermi coordinates within this framework, we calculate the next-to-leading-order corrections to the neutron's energy spectrum. Finally, we evaluate them for typical experimental configurations, such as that of qBounce, and note that, while the current precision for observations of ultracold neutrons may not yet enable to probe them, they could still be relevant in the future or in alternative circumstances.