Atom interferometers and a small-scale test of general relativity
arXiv:2202.01900 · doi:10.1007/s10714-022-03012-4
Abstract
Since the first appearance of general relativity in 1916, various experiments have been conducted to test the theory. Due to the weakness of the interactions involved, all of the documented tests were carried out in a gravitational field generated by objects of an astronomical scale. We propose an idea for an experiment that could detect purely general-relativistic effects in a lab-generated gravitational field. It is shown that a set of dense rapidly-revolving cylinders produce a frame-dragging effect substantial enough to be two orders of magnitude away from the observable range of the next generation of atomic interferometers. The metric tensor due to a uniform rotating axisymmetric body in the weak-field limit is calculated and the phase shift formula for the interferometer is derived. This article is meant to demonstrate feasibility of the concept and stimulate further research into the field of low-scale experiments in general relativity. It is by no means a fully developed experiment proposal.
28 pages, 6 figures
References in corpus (10)
- Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
- Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity
- Limits to the sensitivity of a low noise compact atomic gravimeter
- Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100)
- General Relativistic Effects in Atom Interferometry
- Lense-Thirring frame dragging induced by a fast-rotating white dwarf in a binary pulsar system
- An Improved Test of the General Relativistic Effect of Frame-Dragging Using the LARES and LAGEOS Satellites
- Phase shift in atom interferometers: corrections for non-quadratic potentials and finite-duration laser pulses
- Solar-system tests of the relativistic gravity
- Theoretical analysis of a single and double reflection atom interferometer in a weakly-confining magnetic trap