MAGIA using atom interferometry to determine the Newtonian gravitational constant

Abstract

We describe our experiment MAGIA (misura accurata di G mediante interferometria atomica), in which we will use atom interferometry to perform a high precision measurement of the Newtonian gravitational constant G. Free-falling laser-cooled atoms in a vertical atomic fountain will be accelerated due to the gravitational potential of nearby source masses (SMs). Detecting this acceleration with techniques of Raman atom interferometry will enable us to assign a value to G. To suppress systematic effects we will implement a double-differential measurement. This includes launching two atom clouds in a gradiometer configuration and moving the SMs to different vertical positions. We briefly summarize the general idea of the MAGIA experiment and put it in the context of other high precision G-measurements. We present the current status of the experiment and report on analyses of the expected measurement accuracy.