Vijay A Singh,Praveen Pathak

and K Krishna Chaitanya* Quantum States of Neutron in Earth's Gravitational Field:

A Challenge from the 36th International Physics Olympiad
Homi Bhabha Centre For
Science Education (TIFR),
V N Purav Marg, Mankhurd
Mumbai400088, india. This article describes a challenging problem con-
* Physics Department cerning a neutron under gravity that was posed
Indian Institute of Technology as a t h e o r e t i c a l p r o b l e m in t h e 3 6 t h I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Kanpur 208016, UP. P h y s i c s O l y m p i a d h e l d in S a l a m a n c a , S p a i n f r o m
Email:
J u l y 3-12, 2005. T h e O l y m p i a d m a r k e d I n d i a ' s
[email protected] eighth foray into this exciting event where seventy-
five n a t i o n s p a r t i c i p a t e d . O u r p e r f o r m a n c e w a s a
s u c c e s s a n d all five s t u d e n t m e m b e r s o f t h e t e a m
s e c u r e d m e d a l s w h i c h i n c l u d e d t w o g o l d , t w o sil-
ver and one bronze medals.

1. P r e a m b l e

The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an an-

nual event initiated by erstwhile East E u r o p e a n nations
three and a half decades ago. India has been a late-
comer to this event which is part festival, part competi-
tion - in short a celebration of the best in pre-university
physics. India participated for the first time in 1998.
This year marked our eighth foray into this exciting
~Ravi Bhattacharjee, SGBT
event. One of us (VAS)was the theory coordinator re-
Khalsa College, Delhi was the
delegation leader and Rajesh sponsible for the training of five pre-university (Stan-
B Khaparde from HBCSE, dard XII) students who participated in the 36th Inter-
Mumbai was the pedagogical national Physics Olympiad at Salamanca, Spain from
leader of the Indian team. July 3 - 12, 20051. He participated in the selection and
Bhupati Chakrabarti, City Col-
training of our team.
lege, Kolkata was the scientific
observer.
The road to the Physics Olympiad is indicated in Table
1. Our intense involvement begins in May when we run
the selection camp at the Homi B h a b h a Centre for Sci-
Keywords
ence E d u c a t i o n (HBCSE), Mumbai. It is perhaps fair
Neutron, gravitational field,
Bohr-Sommerfeld-Wilson
to say t h a t at least a dozen of us have to make do with
quantJzation, projectile mo- four hours of sleep a day for the next two months. We
tion, elastic collision, Olym- had a difficult time selecting the five students from the
piad. fifty-five who were present at the camp. This done, we

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No. Exam Duration Date Participants Assoc.

I. NSEP 2.5 hrs Nov./Dec. >30,000 IAPT

2. INPhO (Theory) 4 hrs Jan. end 250 IAPT + HBCSE
3. OCSC 10 days May-June 55 HBCSE
4. IPhO-PDT 10 days July 5 HBCSE
5. IPhO 10 hrs July > 350 Intnl. location!

NSEP - National Standard Examination in Physics (An annual nationwide examination conducted by the
voluntary body, IAPT). INPhO - The Indian National Physics Olympiad (Exam) (An annual national level
examination conducted jointly by HBCSE and IAPT). OCSC - Orientation Cum Selection Camp (This is run
for about ten days in May-June at HBCSE with the help of a national pool of physics Faculty). IAPT - The
Indian Assoction of Physics teachers ( A voluntary organition of physics teachers active for over 20 years).
HBCSE- The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (National Centre set up by TIFR in Mumbai, India).
IPhO - The International Physics Olympiad (Exam) (An annual examination in which seventy-five nations
participated at Salamanca, Spain in 2005).

conducted a pre-departure training (PDT) for the five Table 1. The Road to the
students before flying them to Spain for the IPhO. More Physics Olympiad.
details of the history, procedure, and preparation can be
found elsewhere [1,2].

The examination consists of two components: experi-

ment and theory. Each component is of five hours dura-
tion. The theory component consists of three questions
each of ten points. The experimental component carries
a weightage of 20 points. As mentioned above, our ef-
forts were met with a fair degree of success. We secured
two gold, two silver and one bronze medals. In short,
each one of our five participants secured a medal. One
student (N Tejaswi Venumadhav) missed gold only by
0.2 points. A total of seventy-five nations participated
in this event.

2. Q u a n t u m Effects of G r a v i t y : T h e P r o b l e m

The problem posed in the 36th International Physics

Olympiad happens to be a front line research problem.
It was based on the work of V V Nesvizhevsky et al.

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No. Name Place Points Medal

1. Piyush Srivastava Allahabad 47.4/50 Gold

2. Sameer Madan Panchkula 45.4/50 Gold
3. N Tejaswai Venumadhav Hyderabad 44.8/50 Silver
4. M Hema Chandra Prakash Hyderabad 41.6/50 Silver
5. Arjun Radhakrishna Bangalore 36.1/50 Bronze

Note that the gold medal cutoff was 45/50 and Mr Tejaswi Venumadhav missed it by a bare 0.2 points!

Table 2. Results of the 36th and involved an international collaboration between Fra-
International Physics nce, Russia and Germany. Their work was published as
Olympiad. an article in Nature (2002)[3] and Physical Review D,
(2003) [4]. The fact that it was posed at the interna-
tional physics olympiad and was successfully solved by
a number of higher secondary school students is a refiec-
tion of the very high standard at the physics olympiad.

This problem involves the q u a n t u m effects of gravity. A

neutron is projected to fall under gravity and it is con-
fined using mirror and absorber arrangement (see Fig-
uT"e 1). An application of the Bohr-Sommerfeld-Wilson
quantization rule [5,6] yields surprising results: (i) Only
discrete energy levels are allowed for the neutron. (ii)
Only discrete projection heights are possible. The latter
effect is space-quantization in a literal sense [7].

The problem is presented in an abbreviated form to

make it suitable for presentation as an article. We shall
discuss the solution in a formal fashion without getting
into distracting "numerics". The readers are however
encouraged to look up the original papers [3,4] as well as
investigate other problems of 36th International Physics
Olympiad [8].

As mentioned earlier, a group of physicists reported the

experiment in which neutrons moving horizontally were
allowed to fall towards a horizontal surface (mirror),
where they bounced back elastically up to the initial
height repeatedly until they encountered a detector.

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Figure 1. Schematic dia-

grams of the experiment:
(a) The arrangement. (b)
Illustration of the param-
eters employed in the text.

The setup of the experiment is sketched in Figure 1.

It consists of the opening C, the neutron mirror M (at
height z = 0), the neutron absorber A (at height z =
H and with length L) and the neutron detector D. The
beau: of neutrons flies with constant horizontal velocity
component vx from C to D through the cavity between
A and M. All the neutrons t h a t reach the surface of A
are absorbed and disappear from the experiment. Those
t h a t reach the surface of M are reflected elastically. The
detector D counts the transmission rate N(H), t h a t is
the total number of neutrons t h a t reach D per ::nit time.

The neutrons enter the cavity with a wide range of pos-

itive and negative vertical velocities, vz. Once in the
cavity, they are confined between the mirror below and
the absorber above. Next we e n u m e r a t e the problem in
steps.

1. C o m p u t e classically the range of vertical veloci-

ties vz(z) of those neutrons which on entering at
a height z, can arrive at the detector D. Assume
that L is sufficiently large.

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Figure 2. Plot of probabil-

ity density of neutrons per
unit time, per unit vertical
velocity and per unit
height. Here

Vzo = x / 2 g ( H - z ) .

. Calculate classically the m i n i m u m length Lc of the

cavity which ensures t h a t all neutrons outside the
previously c o m p u t e d velocity range are absorbed.
Use Vx = 10.0 ms -1 and H = 50.0 ttm.

. C o m p u t e the classical n e u t r o n transmission rate

No(H) assuming t h a t neutrons arrive at the cav-
ity with vertical velocity Vz and at height z. We
assume t h a t all values of Vz and z are equally prob-
able. The constant n u m b e r of neutrons (per unit
time, per unit velocity, per unit height) t h a t enter
the cavity with vertical velocity vz and at height z
is represented by p (see Figure 2). N(H) is mea-
sured at D. Classically we expect t h a t it increases
monotonically with H.

. The experimental results obtained by t h a t group

disagree with the above classical predictions, show-
ing instead t h a t the value of N(H) experiences
sharp increases when H crosses some critical
heights H1, H2 etc. (see Figure 3). In other words,
the experiment showed t h a t the vertical motion of
neutrons bouncing on the mirror is quantized.
The B o h r - S o m m e r f e l d - W i l s o n quantization rule
[5,6] states t h a t

pzdz = nh, (n = 1, 2, 3 . . . )

where h is Planck's constant, Pz is the vertical

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Figure 3. Plot N(H) of neu-

trons, observed experi-
m e n t a l l y by Grenoble
group showing that the
value of N(H) experiences
a sharp increase when H
crosses some critical
heights H~, H2, etc. Solid
smooth curve corre-
sponds to the classical
dependence N (H) (see
equation (4) on p.98).

component of the momentum and the symbol ~;

covers one whole bouncing cycle. Only neutrons
with these quantized values are allowed in the cav-
ity.
Obtain the expression for discrete heights Hn and
energy levels En, associated with the vertical too-
tion, using the Bohr-Sommerfeld-Wilson quanti-
zation condition. Give the numerical result for H1
in #m and for E 1 in eV.

. The uniform initial distribution p of neutrons at

the entrance changes during the flight through a
long cavity into the step like distribution detected
at D (see Figure 3). We consider for simplicity the
case of a long cavity with H < H2. Classically,
all neutrons with energies in the earlier consid-
ered range were allowed through it, while quantum
mechanically only electrons of energy E1 are per-
mitted. According to the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle, this reshuffling requires a minimum time
of flight.
Estimate the minimum time of flight tq and the
mininmm length Lq of the cavity needed to observe
the first sharp increase in the number of neutrons
at D. Use v~ = 10.0 ms -1.

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6. In q u a n t u m theory, t h e n u m b e r of n e u t r o n s per
unit t i m e per unit height for a long e n o u g h cavity
and H > H1, is given by
TElp/pz(Z) if z < H1
I(z) = 0 otherwise

where T is a dimensionless c o n s t a n t .
C o m p u t e t h e q u a n t u m rate Nq(H) for cavity heights
H b e t w e e n 0 a n d H2 a n d c o m p a r e w i t h No(H1).

3. Solution

. We assume t h a t L is m u c h larger t h a n any other

l e n g t h in t h e problem.
Since t h e energy of t h e particle is conserved, so
1 2 1 2 1 1 2

where z is t h e height at which the n e u t r o n enters

t h e cavity and Z is t h e d i s p l a c e m e n t along z-axis
d u r i n g its m o t i o n u n d e r gravity. Note m is the
mass of one n e u t r o n a n d g is t h e g r a v i t a t i o n a l ac-
celeration.
M a x i m u m height which a n e u t r o n can reach is H
and at Z = H, vertical speed m u s t be zero. Only
those n e u t r o n s will reach t h e detector D, which
c a n n o t cross this height. T h u s , conservation of
energy implies
1 2 1 2 1 2
-~rnv x + -~mv z + m g z _< -2mv~ + 0 + m g H ,

i.e., v z2 _< 2g(H z).

So t h e allowed values of vz are in t h e range,

- - z) _< v z _< v % ( R - (1)

Alternatively we can also o b t a i n the above result

by kinematics.

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2. To o b t a i n t h e critical l e n g t h we a s s u m e t h e worst
case scenario. Let the n e u t r o n be p r o j e c t e d from
z = H and w i t h d o w n w a r d velocity of v ~ H . It
reaches t h e detector after t h e first full b o u n c e a n d
its transit t i m e is

t=2~.

T h e n t h e critical length is

Lc ---- Vxt

= 2vxv -Hg . (2)

S u b s t i t u t i n g the given values, we o b t a i n
Lc = 6.39 cm. (3)

Similarly, for u p w a r d velocities vz > v/2g(H - z),

this m a x i m u m transit time will be almost half of
the time o b t a i n e d for d o w n w a r d velocities. So in
this case, after calculation we can o b t a i n Lc =
3.19 cm. So, t h e m i n i m u m l e n g t h Lc of t h e cav-
ity to ensure t h a t all n e u t r o n s outside t h e velocity
range given by (1) are a b s o r b e d is 6.39 cm.

. For t h e allowed Vz values (see e q u a t i o n ( i ) ) , clas-

sical rate of n e u t r o n s entering t h e cavity is equal
to t h e n u m b e r of n e u t r o n s d e t e c t e d at D. If we as-
s u m e a u n i f o r m probability for all allowed vz val-
ues (see Figure 2), t h e n for n e u t r o n s entering the
cavity b e t w e e n heights z a n d z + dz, t h e n u m b e r
dNc(H) reaching t h e d e t e c t o r per unit t i m e is

dX~(H) = px 2V/29(H-z) x dz.

Hence t h e t o t a l n u m b e r of n e u t r o n s is o b t a i n e d by
i n t e g r a t i n g over all possible heights

N~(H) - 4pH~ggH. (4)

3

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Solid smooth curve of Figure 3 depicts the plot of

No(H) versus H.

4. As suggested, the B o h r - S o m m e r f e l d - W i l s o n quan-

tization condition states t h a t

f pzdz = nh, (n = 1, 2, 3.. .),

where the symbol :~ covers one whole bouncing

cycle. Thus for a n e u t r o n bouncing off a per-
fect reflector, we obtain its quantized states, by
employing this B o h r - S o m m e r f e l d - W i l s o n quanti-
zation condition

2 m~/2g(Hn - z)dz = nh.

After carrying out integration,

Hn = 4 x n 2/3. (5)

And energy is given by,

En = gUn --- • 2/3. (6)

Substituting the values for h, g and the n e u t r o n

mass m = 1.67x 10 .27 kg, for n = 1 we obtain,

H1 = 16.50#m, (7)
E1 = 1.69 x 10 -12 eV. (8)

This energy corresponds to a t e m p e r a t u r e ~ 2.0 x

10 -s K. Thus we need a source of ultra-cold neu-
trons. Here we can note some interesting points:

(a) The height/-/1 is of the same order as the cav-

ity height. H = 50.0 #m. This opens up the
possibility of observing spatial quantization.

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(b) The dependence of energy on n is fractional

(0(n2/3). This is distinct from the hydrogen
atom ( o ( - 1 / n 2 ) , the harmonic oscillator (cx
n) and the particle in a box (o(n2). Note t h a t
the exact solution based on the Schrodinger
equation yields E~ cx (n - 1)2/3 [4].
(c) The transition from n = 2 to n = 1 will yield
a photon of wavelength 1.24 x 106 m which
belongs to ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) radio
range.

5. Using Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle,

h

h
At
- 2AE
From equation (8), A E -~ 10 -12 eV. So A t -~
0.5 x 10 -3 s.
Therefore estimated value of tq is 0.5 ms and Lq =
Vxtq = 0.5 cm.
Thus the cavity length needs to be at least half a
centimeter for the q u a n t u m j u m p in the neutrons
to be observed.

6. For H < H1, Nq = O.

For H2 > H > HI,

dNq = I(z) dz.

= fooI-I I(z) dz

= TEIPJoH11dz

_ 2 TElPrn H~9

Nq(H) = { 0 g < H1
2TElp ~ Hi < H < H2
"~ V 29

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Suggested Reading Nq(H > H1) 2 TElp ~-H--11/2g 3 TEl

4
[1] Vijay A Singh and R M No(H1) m -5pill v~gH1 2 m 2gill
Dharkar, The International
Physics Olympiad - 1999, Keeping in mind that E1 = MgH1
Physics News, VoL30,pp.60-
64,1999. Nq(H > H1)= -3@Nc(H1).
[2] Vijay A Singh, Rajesh B
Khaparde and S R Pathare,
T h e M e c h a n i c a l Black Figure 3 depicts the step like behavior of the detected
Box: A Challenge from the neutrons. As mentioned in part(4) of the solution, the
35th International Physics
energy of the neutrons corresponds to a temperature of
O l y m p i a d , Resonance,
Vol.10, No.4,pp.75-82, 2005
2 x 10 -s K. The Grenoble facility in Prance is equipped
and references therein 9 with such a source of ultra-cold neutrons. The de-Broglie
[3] V V Nesvizhevsky et al, wavelength of these neutrons ~dB "~ 22 #m. This is com-
Quantum states of neutrons parable to the cavity height of 50 #m.
in the Earth's gravitational
field, Nature, Vol.415, pp. Long standing efforts to measure the quantum effects in
297 - 299, 2002. the presence of gravity were frustrated by a number of
[4] V V Nesvizhevsky et al,
Measurements of quantum
factors. (i) Gravitational effects are by far overshadowed
states of neutrons in the by electromagnetic effects. The choice of neutrons was
Earth's gravitational field, dictated by this consideration. Since the neutron has a
Phys. Rev. Vol. D67, magnetic moment, magnetic shielding was provided for
pp.102002, 2003.
the setup. (ii) On earth, the effect of gravity is unidi-
[5] L Pauling andEBWilson,
Introduction To Quantum
rectional. The mirror arrangement ensured confinement
Mechanics, International and bound states. What is remarkable is that the quan-
Student Edition, McGraw- tum effect in the presence of gravity, although expected,
Hill International Book has actually been observed. What is also remarkable
Company, pp.28-45,1935.
is that one of our students (Piyush Srivastava) solved
[6] J Powell and B Crase-
mann, Quantum Mechan-
the entire problem correctly (10/10) and two other stu-
ics, N a r o s a P u b l i s h i n g dents Sameer Madan (9.4/10) and N Tejaswi Venumad-
House, New Delhi, pp. 21- hay (9.2/10) secured more then 90% marks in this ques-
3I, 1988. tion.
[7] Arthur Beiser, Conceptsof
Modern Physics, Fifth Edi- Acknowledgment
tion, Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Company Lim- This work was supported by the National Initiative on
ited,New Delhi, p,209,1997. Undergraduate Science (NIUS) undertaken by the Homi
[8] See the website: http://
Bhabha Centre for Science Education - Tata Institute of
www.ipho2005.com.
Fundamental Research (HBCSE-TIFR), Mumbai, India.

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