Abstract
We present here the current status of our high-sensitivity gravity-gradiometer based on atom interferometry. In our apparatus, two clouds of laser-cooled rubidium atoms are launched in a fountain configuration and simultaneously interrogated by a Raman-pulse interferometry sequence. The system has recently been upgraded and its stability re-evaluated. We also discuss the recent progress of the experiment towards a precise determination of the Newtonian gravitational constant G. The signal-to-noise ratio and the long-term stability of the gravity gradiometer demonstrated interesting perspectives for pushing the G measurement precision below the 100 ppm level.
Highlights
We present here the current status of our high-sensitivity gravitygradiometer based on atom interferometry
In order to characterize the apparatus, we tested the sensitivity of the gravity gradiometer and its long-term stability
We presented a sensitive gravity gradiometer based on Raman atom interferometry
Summary
A detailed description of the MAGIA experiment can be found in the previous papers [14, 16, 31, 42] and references therein. We use atom interferometry to perform a simultaneous measurement of the differential acceleration experienced by two clouds of cold rubidium atoms in the presence of a well-characterized set of source masses. In a Raman interferometry-based gravimeter, atoms in an atomic fountain are illuminated by a sequence of light pulses that split, redirect and recombine the atomic wave packets. In the presence of a gravity field, atoms experience a phase shift φ = keffgT 2 depending on the local gravitational acceleration g and on the time interval T between the Raman pulses [2]. Two spatially separated atomic clouds in free fall along the same vertical axis are simultaneously interrogated by the same Raman beams to provide a measurement of the differential acceleration induced by gravity on the two samples
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