Matter-Wave Interferometry for Inertial Sensing and Tests of Fundamental Physics

Abstract

Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry (VLBAI) corresponds to groundbased atomic matter-wave interferometry on large scales in space and time, letting the atomic wave functions interfere after free evolution times of several seconds or wave packet separation at the scale of meters. As inertial sensors, e.g., accelerometers, these devices take advantage of the quadratic scaling of the leading order phase shift with the free evolution time to enhance their sensitivity, giving rise to compelling experiments. With shot noise-limited instabilities better than 1 × 10 −9 m/s 2 at 1 s at the horizon, VLBAI may compete with state-of-the-art superconducting gravimeters, while providing absolute instead of relative measurements. When operated with several atomic states, isotopes, or species simultaneously, tests of the universality of free fall at a level of parts in 10 13 and beyond are in reach. Finally, the large spatial extent of the interferometer allows one to probe the limits of coherence at macroscopic scales as well as the interplay of quantum mechanics and gravity. We report on the status of the VLBAI facility, its key features, and future prospects in fundamental science.

All-Optical Matter-Wave Lens using Time-Averaged Potentials

“…This shows the relevance for experiments on large baselines [23,37,[74][75][76][77] or in microgravity [78,79]. We highlight the extrapolation for the Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometer (VL-BAI) [76,80], targeting a pulse separation time of T I = 1.2 s [81]. Here, the model describing our source gives the perspective of reaching picokelvin expansion temperatures of matter-wave lensed large atomic ensem-…”

All-Optical Matter-Wave Lens using Time-Averaged Potentials

“…after a preparation time t P = 1 s with a starting expan-359 sion velocity of 2 mm s −1 , as anticipated for the VLBAI 360 setup[76,80]. After the lens the resulting expansion ve-361 locity is 0.135 mm s −1 corresponding to an equivalent 3D 362 temperature of 200 pK.367 stimulated raman transitions, Physical Review Letters 368 67, 181 (1991).369 [2] M. Kasevich and S. Chu, Measurement of the gravita-370 tional acceleration of an atom with a light-pulse atom 371 interferometer, Appl.…”

Light propagation and atom interferometry in gravity and dilaton fields

“…These remaining terms are dominated by the finite-speedof-light effect 3Δ𝑣 0 /𝑐. The estimate for already performed UFF tests [34] was Δ𝑣 0 /𝑐 2 • 10 −11 , which is close to the uncertainty of planned experiments [92]. As such, the effect has to be subtracted for the analysis of the test.…”