Testing the universality of free fall with rubidium and ytterbium in a very large baseline atom interferometer

Abstract

We propose a very long baseline atom interferometer test of Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) with ytterbium and rubidium extending over 10m of free fall. In view of existing parametrizations of EEP violations, this choice of test masses significantly broadens the scope of atom interferometric EEP tests with respect to other performed or proposed tests by comparing two elements with high atomic numbers. In a first step, our experimental scheme will allow reaching an accuracy in the Eötvös ratio of $7\times 10^{-13}$. This achievement will constrain violation scenarios beyond our present knowledge and will represent an important milestone for exploring a variety of schemes for further improvements of the tests as outlined in the paper. We will discuss the technical realisation in the new infrastructure of the Hanover Institute of Technology (HITec) and give a short overview of the requirements to reach this accuracy. The experiment will demonstrate a variety of techniques which will be employed in future tests of EEP, high accuracy gravimetry and gravity-gradiometry. It includes operation of a force sensitive atom interferometer with an alkaline earth like element in free fall, beam splitting over macroscopic distances and novel source concepts.

References in corpus (14)

• Test of the Equivalence Principle Using a Rotating Torsion Balance
• Precision Measurement of the Newtonian Gravitational Constant Using Cold Atoms
• New determination of the fine structure constant and test of the quantum electrodynamics
• Interferometry with Bose-Einstein Condensates in Microgravity
• Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry
• Quantum Test of the Universality of Free Fall
• Limits to the sensitivity of a low noise compact atomic gravimeter
• Two-color photoassociation spectroscopy of ytterbium atoms and the precise determinations of s-wave scattering lengths
• Matter wave lensing to picokelvin temperatures
• Stability comparison of two absolute gravimeters: optical versus atomic interferometers
• Noise-Immune Conjugate Large-Area Atom Interferometers
• Metric fluctuations and the Weak Equivalence Principle
• Light-pulse atom interferometry
• All-optical transport and compression of ytterbium atoms into the surface of a solid immersion lens

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• Interferometry in an Atomic Fountain with Ytterbium Bose-Einstein Condensates
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• Existing experiments suffice to indirectly verify the quantum essence of gravity