A scalable, symmetric atom interferometer for infrasound gravitational wave detection

authored by

C. Schubert, D. Schlippert, M. Gersemann, S. Abend, E. Giese, A. Roura, W. P. Schleich, W. Ertmer, E. M. Rasel

Abstract

We propose a terrestrial detector for gravitational waves with frequencies between 0.3 and 5 Hz based on atom interferometry. As key elements, we discuss two symmetric matter-wave interferometers, the first one with a single loop and the second one featuring a folded triple-loop geometry. The latter eliminates the need for atomic ensembles at femtokelvin energies imposed by the Sagnac effect in other atom interferometric detectors. The folded triple-loop geometry also combines several advantages of current vertical and horizontal matter wave antennas and enhances the scalability in order to achieve a peak strain sensitivity of 2 × 10 − 21 / Hz .

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics

External Organisation(s)

German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ulm University
Texas A and M University

Type

Article

Journal

AVS Quantum Science

Volume

6

No. of pages

12

Publication date

12.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics, Computer Networks and Communications, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Computational Theory and Mathematics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1909.01951 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1116/5.0228398 (Access: Open)