Gravity-induced geometric spin Hall effect of freely falling quantum particle

Abstract

We discuss a new gravitational effect that the wave packet of free-fall quantum particle undergoes a spin-dependent transverse shift in Earth’s gravitational field. This effect is similar to the geometric spin Hall effect (GSHE) [Aiello et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 100401 (2009)], and can be called gravity-induced GSHE. This effect suggests that the free-fall wave packets of opposite spin-polarized quantum particles can be split in the direction perpendicular to spin and gravity.