Sensitivity limits of a Raman atom interferometer as a gravity gradiometer

Abstract

We evaluate the sensitivity of a dual cloud atom interferometer to the measurement of vertical gravity gradient. We study the influence of most relevant experimental parameters on noise and long-term drifts. Results are also applied to the case of doubly differential measurements of the gravitational signal from local source masses. We achieve a short term sensitivity of 3 × 10 −9 g/ √ Hz to differential gravity acceleration, limited by the quantum projection noise of the instrument. Active control of the most critical parameters allows to reach a resolution of 5 × 10 −11 g after 8000 s on the measurement of differential gravity acceleration. The long term stability is compatible with a measurement of the gravitational constant G at the level of 10 −4 after an integration time of about 100 hours.

Characterization of a simultaneous dual-species atom interferometer for a quantum test of the weak equivalence principle

“…In recent decades, the very high performance of such sensors have been demonstrated for measuring the gravity acceleration [3][4][5][6][7], Earth's gravity gradient [8][9][10], rotations [11][12][13] and gravity-field curvature [14]. That is why they have been greatly developed for many applications such as inertial navigation [15], geophysics, geodesy, sub-surface exploration, and metrology [4].…”

Search for Lorentz violation in short-range gravity

“…Note that existing searches for pure-gravity local Lorentz violation within this framework have been restricted to the context of a Lorentz-violating inversesquare law [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. A few other short-range experiments [19][20][21][22] may have potential sensitivity to the modifications (1), while some experiments optimized for nonperturbative corrections to Newton's law could conceivably be adjusted to study perturbative effects [23][24][25][26]. Note also that constraints on forces with various inverse-power laws have appeared in the literature [27], but only in the context of Lorentz-invariant effects.…”

K-mouflage gravity models that pass Solar System and cosmological constraints

“…In addition, laboratory experiments, such as the ones using atom interferometry and measuring the acceleration induced by a test mass of a few grams over distances of a few centimeters, also constrain the amplitude of the fifth force in Eq. (23) to a 10 −4 accuracy [23,24]. Thus laboratory experiments place constraints on 2β 2 /K ′ in the static case, but in an even more non-linear regime than the Cassini spacecraft or the Lunar Ranging experiment.…”