Laser-Ranging Long Baseline Differential Atom Interferometers for Space

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel laser-ranging connected twin atom interferometer setup for space, enhancing precision and dynamic range in gravitational measurements and gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

It proposes a new LRI-AI configuration that improves long baseline differential atom interferometry by phase-locking lasers and displacing requirements, enabling better precision and resource efficiency.

Findings

Achieves equivalent measurement functionality to traditional systems.

Enables extended dynamic range of differential signals.

Optimizes laser power allocation for space-based applications.

Abstract

High sensitivity differential atom interferometers are promising for precision measurements in science frontiers in space, including gravity field mapping for Earth science studies and gravitational wave detection. We propose a new configuration of twin atom interferometers connected by a laser ranging interferometer (LRI-AI) to provide precise information of the displacements between the two AI reference mirrors and a means to phase-lock the two independent interferometer lasers over long distances, thereby further enhancing the feasibility of long baseline differential atom interferometers. We show that a properly implemented LRI-AI can achieve equivalent functionality to the conventional differential atom interferometer measurement system. LRI-AI isolates the laser requirements for atom interferometers and for optical phase readout between distant locations, thus enabling optimized allocation of available laser power within a limited physical size and resource budget. A unique aspect of LRI-AI also enables extended dynamic range of differential signals and the highest possible effective data rate.