Testing the Universality of Free Fall at $10^{-10}$ level by Comparing the Atoms in Different Hyperfine States with Bragg Diffraction

Abstract

We have performed a precision atomic interferometry experiment on testing the universality of free fall (UFF) considering atoms' spin degree of freedom. Our experiment employs the Bragg atom interferometer with ${}^{87}$Rb atoms either in hyperfine state $|F=1,m_F=0⟩$ or $|F=2,m_F=0⟩$, and the wave packets in these two states are diffracted in one pair of Bragg beams alternatively, which can help suppress the common-mode systematic errors. We have obtained an E$\ddot{\mathrm{o}}$tv$\ddot{\mathrm{o}}$s ratio $\eta =\left(0.9\pm 2.7\right)\times 10^{-10}$, and set a new record on the precision with a nearly 5 times improvement. Our experiment gives stronger restrictions on the possible UFF breaking mechanism.

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