Gravity gradient suppression in spaceborne atomic tests of the equivalence principle

Abstract

The gravity gradient is one of the most serious systematic effects in atomic tests of the equivalence principle (EP). While differential acceleration measurements performed with different atomic species under free fall test the validity of EP, minute displacements between the test masses in a gravity gradient produces a false EP-violating signal that limits the precision of the test. We show that gravity inversion and modulation using a gimbal mount can suppress the systematics due to gravity gradients caused by both moving and stationary parts of the instrument as well as the environment, strongly reducing the need to overlap two species.

arXiv comment5 pages, 1 figure

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• Matter-gravity couplings and Lorentz violation
• Atom-interferometry constraints on dark energy
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Resolution of the Co-Location Problem in Satellite Quantum Tests of the Universality of Free Fall
• Relevance of the weak equivalence principle and experiments to test it: lessons from the past and improvements expected in space
• New apparatus design for high-precision measurement ofG with atom interferometry
• Nonclassical effects in geodesic motion
• Systematic errors in high-precision gravity measurements by light-pulse atom interferometry on the ground and in space
• Offset Simultaneous Conjugate Atom Interferometers
• Bose-Einstein condensates in microgravity and fundamental tests of gravity