Atomic gravitational wave interferometric sensor

作者：Dimopoulos Savas^*; Graham Peter W; Hogan Jason M; Kasevich Mark A; Rajendran Surjeet

来源：Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 2008, 78(12): 122002.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevD.78.122002

We propose two distinct atom interferometer gravitational wave detectors, one terrestrial and another satellite based, utilizing the core technology of the Stanford 10 m atom interferometer presently under construction. Each configuration compares two widely separated atom interferometers run using common lasers. The signal scales with the distance between the interferometers, which can be large since only the light travels over this distance, not the atoms. The terrestrial experiment with two similar to 10 m atom similar to 10(-19)/root Hz in the 1 Hz-10 Hz band, inaccessible to LIGO, and can detect gravitational waves from solar mass binaries out to megaparsec distances. The satellite experiment with two atom interferometers separated by a similar to 1000 km baseline can probe the same frequency spectrum as LISA with comparable strain sensitivity similar to 10(-20)/root Hz . The use of ballistic atoms (instead of mirrors) as inertial test masses improves systematics coming from vibrations and acceleration noise, and significantly reduces spacecraft control requirements. We analyze the backgrounds in this configuration and discuss methods for controlling them to the required levels.

• 出版日期2008-12