An Atomic Gravitational Wave Interferometric Sensor in Low Earth Orbit (AGIS-LEO)
arXiv:1009.2702 · doi:10.1007/s10714-011-1182-x
Abstract
We propose an atom interferometer gravitational wave detector in low Earth orbit (AGIS-LEO). Gravitational waves can be observed by comparing a pair of atom interferometers separated over a ~30 km baseline. In the proposed configuration, one or three of these interferometer pairs are simultaneously operated through the use of two or three satellites in formation flight. The three satellite configuration allows for the increased suppression of multiple noise sources and for the detection of stochastic gravitational wave signals. The mission will offer a strain sensitivity of < 10^(-18) / Hz^(1/2) in the 50 mHz - 10 Hz frequency range, providing access to a rich scientific region with substantial discovery potential. This band is not currently addressed with the LIGO or LISA instruments. We analyze systematic backgrounds that are relevant to the mission and discuss how they can be mitigated at the required levels. Some of these effects do not appear to have been considered previously in the context of atom interferometry, and we therefore expect that our analysis will be broadly relevant to atom interferometric precision measurements. Finally, we present a brief conceptual overview of shorter-baseline (< 100 m) atom interferometer configurations that could be deployed as proof-of-principle instruments on the International Space Station (AGIS-ISS) or an independent satellite.
37 pages, 21 figures
References in corpus (18)
- Atom Interferometers
- Gravitational Waves from Phase Transitions at the Electroweak Scale and Beyond
- Compact, thermal-noise-limited optical cavity for diode laser stabilization at 1 x 10-15
- Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry
- Gravitational wave generation from bubble collisions in first-order phase transitions: an analytic approach
- Theory and Numerics of Gravitational Waves from Preheating after Inflation
- An Atomic Gravitational Wave Interferometric Sensor (AGIS)
- A new cosmic microwave background constraint to primordial gravitational waves
- General Relativistic Effects in Atom Interferometry
- Gravitational Waves from Warped Spacetime
- Gravitational Wave Detection with Atom Interferometry
- Combination of Bloch oscillations with a Ramsey-Bordé interferometer : new determination of the fine structure constant
- Enhancing the area of a Raman atom interferometer using a versatile double-diffraction technique
- Quantum Physics Exploring Gravity in the Outer Solar System: The Sagas Project
- Atom interferometer as a selective sensor of rotation or gravity
- Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background from Light Cosmic Strings
- Is it possible to detect gravitational waves with atom interferometers?
- Wide bandwidth phase-locked diode laser with an intra-cavity electro-optic modulator