QUANTUM COUPLING BETWEEN GRAVITY AND MASS IN BOUNCING BALL DYNAMICS

We review the dynamics of a bouncing ball, both from the classical and the quantum points of view, studying the role of its inertial and gravitational masses. We analyze the behavior of quantum particles of different masses, embedded in a uniform gravitational field. We show that the bouncing ball is a useful didactic example to show that the coupling between rest mass and gravity cannot be avoided at the quantum level and that the equivalence principle must be reformulated in quantum mechanics. Galileo’s experiment of falling bodies can be still satisfied if one considers only the average quantum values of observables