TY - JOUR

T1 - Atomic source selection in space-borne gravitational wave detection

AU - Loriani Fard, Sina Leon

AU - Schlippert, Dennis

AU - Schubert, Christian

AU - Abend, Sven

AU - Ahlers, Holger

AU - Ertmer, Wolfgang

AU - Rudolph, Jan

AU - Hogan, Jason M.

AU - Kasevich, Mark A.

AU - Rasel, Ernst Maria

AU - Gaaloul, Naceur

N1 - Funding information: The authors acknowledge financial support from DFG through CRC 1227 (DQ-mat), project B07. The presented work is furthermore supported by CRC 1128 (geo-Q), the German Space Agency (DLR) with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) due to an enactment of the German Bundestag under Grants No. 50WM1641, 50WM1952, 50WP1700 and 50WM1435. Furthermore, support of the 'Niedersächsisches Vorab' through the 'Quantum- and Nano-Metrology' (QUANOMET) initiative within the project QT3 is acknowledged as well as through 'Förderung von Wisenschaft und Technik in Forschung und Lehre' for the initial funding of research in the new DLR institute. Moreover, networking support by the COST action CA16221 'Atom Quantum Technologies' and the Q-SENSE project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) under Grant Agreement Number 691156 is acknowledged. SL acknowledges mobility support provided by the IP@Leibniz program of the LU Hanover. DS gratefully acknowledges funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the funding program Photonics Research Germany under contract number 13N14875. Robin Corgier, David Guéry-Odelin, Nandan Jha, Jan-Niclas Siemß and Klaus Zipfel are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable discussions and comments. The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

PY - 2019/6/21

Y1 - 2019/6/21

N2 - Recent proposals for space-borne gravitational wave detectors based on atom interferometry rely on extremely narrow single-photon transition lines as featured by alkaline-earth metals or atomic species with similar electronic configuration. Despite their similarity, these species differ in key parameters such as abundance of isotopes, atomic flux, density and temperature regimes, achievable expansion rates, density limitations set by interactions, as well as technological and operational requirements. In this study, we compare viable candidates for gravitational wave detection with atom interferometry, contrast the most promising atomic species, identify the relevant technological milestones and investigate potential source concepts towards a future gravitational wave detector in space.

AB - Recent proposals for space-borne gravitational wave detectors based on atom interferometry rely on extremely narrow single-photon transition lines as featured by alkaline-earth metals or atomic species with similar electronic configuration. Despite their similarity, these species differ in key parameters such as abundance of isotopes, atomic flux, density and temperature regimes, achievable expansion rates, density limitations set by interactions, as well as technological and operational requirements. In this study, we compare viable candidates for gravitational wave detection with atom interferometry, contrast the most promising atomic species, identify the relevant technological milestones and investigate potential source concepts towards a future gravitational wave detector in space.

KW - physics.atom-ph

KW - astro-ph.IM

KW - quant-ph

KW - space physics

KW - gravitational wave detection

KW - quantum gases

KW - inertial sensors

KW - general relativity

KW - atom interferometry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073662552&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/1367-2630/ab22d0

DO - 10.1088/1367-2630/ab22d0

M3 - Article

VL - 21

JO - New Journal of Physics

JF - New Journal of Physics

SN - 1367-2630

IS - 6

M1 - 063030

ER -