Concept study and preliminary design of a cold atom interferometer for space gravity gradiometry

authored by
A. Trimeche, B. Battelier, D. Becker, A. Bertoldi, P. Bouyer, C. Braxmaier, E. Charron, R. Corgier, M. Cornelius, K. Douch, N. Gaaloul, S. Herrmann, J. Müller, E. Rasel, C. Schubert, H. Wu, F. Pereira Dos Santos
Abstract

We study a space-based gravity gradiometer based on cold atom interferometry and its potential for the Earth's gravitational field mapping. The instrument architecture has been proposed in Carraz et al (2014 Microgravity Sci. Technol. 26 139) and enables high-sensitivity measurements of gravity gradients by using atom interferometers in a differential accelerometer configuration. We present the design of the instrument including its subsystems and analyze the mission scenario, for which we derive the expected instrument performances, the requirements on the sensor and its key subsystems, and the expected impact on the recovery of the Earth gravity field.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Quantum Optics
Institute of Geodesy
QuantumFrontiers
External Organisation(s)
Universite de Bordeaux
University of Bremen
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Universite Paris-Sud XI
Observatoire de Paris (OBSPARIS)
Sorbonne Université
PSL Research University
Type
Article
Journal
Classical and quantum gravity
Volume
36
ISSN
0264-9381
Publication date
11.2019
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1903.09828 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/ab4548 (Access: Closed)