MAGIA: Using atom interferometry to determine the Newtonian gravitational constant

Year: 2003

Authors: Stuhler J., Fattori M., Petelski T., Tino G.M.

Autors Affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica and LENS, Universita di Firenze, INFN – Sezione di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

Abstract: We describe our experiment MAGIA (misura accurata di G mediante interferometria atomica), in which we will use atom interferometry to perform a high precision measurement of the Newtonian gravitational constant G. Free-falling laser-cooled atoms in a vertical atomic fountain will be accelerated due to the gravitational potential of nearby source masses (SMs). Detecting this acceleration with techniques of Raman atom interferometry will enable us to assign a value to G. To suppress systematic effects we will implement a double-differential measurement. This includes launching two atom clouds in a gradiometer configuration and moving the SMs to different vertical positions. We briefly summarize the general idea of the MAGIA experiment and put in the context of other high precision G-measurements. We present the current status of the experiment and report on analyses of the expected measurement accuracy.

Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF OPTICS B-QUANTUM AND SEMICLASSICAL OPTICS

Volume: 5 (2)      Pages from:   to:

KeyWords: Acceleration; Doppler effect; Gravimeters; Gravitational effects; Interferometry; Laser applications; Magnetometers; Raman spectroscopy, Atom interferometry; Gradiometer; Misura accurata di G mediante interferometria atomica; Newtonian gravitational constant; Precision measurement; Raman interferometry, Atomic physics
DOI: 10.1088/1464-4266/5/2/361

ImpactFactor: 1.214
Citations: 18
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