Flattening Earth acceleration in atomic fountains

Journal Article · Thu Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.82.013622· OSTI ID:21442971

Bertoldi, Andrea ^[1]

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1. Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique, Univ. Paris Sud, Campus Polytechnique RD128, F-91127 Palaiseau (France)

A method to compensate for Earth's gravity tide over an extended axial region is reported. Flattening acceleration is important in experiments where the coupling of the dynamics of free-falling probes to the gravity gradient generates stochastic noise on the measurement. Optimized cylindrically symmetric mass distributions lower Earth's tidal effect over 10 cm by a factor 10{sup 3}. A multimass compensation system with comparable performance is devised for tall atom interferometers. Reducing the gravity gradient is essential in terrestrial experiments based on atom fountain configurations being developed to precisely test general relativity or the neutrality of matter.

• OSTI ID: 21442971
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 82, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.82.013622; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ATOMS
COUPLING
EARTH PLANET
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GRAVITATION
INTERFEROMETERS
MASS DISTRIBUTION
PERFORMANCE
PROBES
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
SYMMETRY
TIDE
DISTRIBUTION
FIELD THEORIES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PLANETS
RELATIVITY THEORY
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION