A New Method for Gravitational Wave Detection with Atomic Sensors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel gravitational wave detection method using atomic sensors that leverages atom interferometry and optical atomic clocks to eliminate laser frequency noise, enabling sensitive detection with a single baseline.

Contribution

The paper presents a new detection strategy utilizing atom interferometry and atomic clocks, allowing gravitational wave detection with only one baseline and immunity to laser frequency noise.

Findings

Method suppresses laser frequency noise effectively.

Enables gravitational wave detection with a single baseline.

Potential applications in ultra-sensitive gravimeters.

Abstract

Laser frequency noise is a dominant noise background for the detection of gravitational waves using long-baseline optical interferometry. Amelioration of this noise requires near simultaneous strain measurements on more than one interferometer baseline, necessitating, for example, more than two satellites for a space-based detector, or two interferometer arms for a ground-based detector. We describe a new detection strategy based on recent advances in optical atomic clocks and atom interferometry which can operate at long-baselines and which is immune to laser frequency noise. Laser frequency noise is suppressed because the signal arises strictly from the light propagation time between two ensembles of atoms. This new class of sensor allows sensitive gravitational wave detection with only a single baseline. This approach also has practical applications in, for example, the development of ultra-sensitive gravimeters and gravity gradiometers.