Measurement of a confinement induced neutron phase

Particle physicists see neutrons as tiny massive particles with a confinement radius of about 0.7 fm and a distinct internal quark–gluon structure. In quantum mechanics, neutrons are described by wave packets whose spatial extent may become ten orders of magnitude larger than the confinement radius, and can even reach macroscopic dimensions, depending on the degree of monochromaticity. For neutrons passing through narrow slits, it has been predicted1,2 that quantization of the transverse momentum component changes the longitudinal momentum component, resulting in a phase shift that should be measurable using interferometric methods3. Here we use neutron interferometry to measure the phase shift arising from lateral confinement of a neutron beam passing through a narrow slit system. The phase shift arises mainly from neutrons whose classical trajectories do not touch the walls of the slits. In this respect, the non-locality of quantum physics is apparent.