5D optics for atomic clocks and gravito-inertial sensors
Résumé
A new framework is proposed to compare and unify photon and atomoptics, which rests on the quantization of proper time. A common waveequation written in five dimensions reduces both cases to 5D-optics ofmassless particles. The ordinary methods of optics (eikonal equation, Kirchhoff integral, Lagrange invariant, Fermat principle, symplectic algebraand ABCD matrices,...) are used to solve this equation in practical cases.The various phase shift cancellations, which occur in atom interferometers, and the quantum Langevin twin paradox for atoms, are then easily explained.A general phase-shift formula for interferometers is derived in fivedimensions, which applies to clocks as well as to gravito-inertial sensors.The application of this formula is illustrated in the case of atomicfountain clocks.