Mid-band gravitational wave detection with precision atomic sensors

Abstract

We assess the science reach and technical feasibility of a satellite mission based on precision atomic sensors configured to detect gravitational radiation. Conceptual advances in the past three years indicate that a two-satellite constellation with science payloads consisting of atomic sensors based on laser cooled atomic Sr can achieve scientifically interesting gravitational wave strain sensitivities in a frequency band between the LISA and LIGO detectors, roughly 30 mHz to 10 Hz. The discovery potential of the proposed instrument ranges from from observation of new astrophysical sources (e.g. black hole and neutron star binaries) to searches for cosmological sources of stochastic gravitational radiation and searches for dark matter.

18 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• Ultra-stable optical clock with two cold-atom ensembles
• Atom interferometry with the Sr optical clock transition
• Constraining stellar binary black hole formation scenarios with eLISA eccentricity measurements
• Role of atoms in atomic gravitational-wave detectors

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Gravitational wave energy budget in strongly supercooled phase transitions
• Large Momentum Transfer Clock Atom Interferometry on the 689 nm Intercombination Line of Strontium
• Prospects for probing gravitational waves from primordial black hole binaries
• Asteroids for $\mu$Hz gravitational-wave detection
• Escape from supercooling with or without bubbles: gravitational wave signatures
• Space-borne atom interferometric gravitational wave detections. Part III. Eccentricity on dark sirens
• Probing Particle Physics with Gravitational Waves
• Circulating pulse cavity enhancement as a method for extreme momentum transfer atom interferometry
• Doppler Compensated Cavity For Atom Interferometry