Green's function analysis of the Neutron Lloyd interferometer

Abstract

The neutron optical Lloyd interferometer can serve as a potent experiment for probing fundamental physics beyond the standard models of particles and cosmology. In this article, we provide a full Green's function analysis of a Lloyd interferometer in the limit that the reflecting mirror extends to the screen. We consider two distinct situations: first, we will review the theoretical case of no external fields being present. Subsequently, we will analyze the case in which a gravitational field is acting on the neutrons. The latter case provides the theory necessary for using a Lloyd interferometer as a probe of gravitational fields.