Confinement induced neutron phase

Full text: When particles (neutrons) pass through narrow channels a quantization of the transverse momentum occurs which also changes the longitudinal momentum because of energy conservation. The resulting phase shift is a purely quantum mechanical phenomenon as it arises most distinctive for neutrons which classically do not touch the walls. The phase shift can be measured using neutron interferometry and first attempts of our group have given promising results. However measurements at NIST and ILL were not fully consistent and more detailed investigations on the wave pacKEXt structure are going on, taking into account both the channel system and the interferometer crystal. Refs. 3 (author)