Abstract: | The laser induced splitting of atomic beams inthe presence of a gravitational field is analyzed. Inthe frame of a quasiclassical approximation, the motionof the atomic beam through a laser region with rectangular profile is calculated. Beside theusual beam splitting due to the atomlaser interaction,an additional splitting occurs due to the anomalouseffective interaction with the gravitational field. In a first order approximation in thegravitational acceleration, the outcome of an atominterferometry experiment is given, which includes thevarious corrections owing to the gravitationalmodification of the beam splitting process. |