Quantum Test of the Equivalence Principle and Space-Time aboard the International Space Station

TL;DR

QTEST is a proposed atom interferometry experiment on the ISS that aims to test Einstein's equivalence principle with unprecedented precision, using quantum wave packets of rubidium isotopes to explore fundamental physics and potential dark matter signatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum dual-species atom interferometer design on the ISS with enhanced sensitivity and systematic error suppression for fundamental physics tests.

Findings

Projected testing precision better than 10^{-15} for equivalence principle

Enhanced photon recoil measurement accuracy over terrestrial experiments

Potential detection of ultralight dark-matter particle signatures

Abstract

We describe the Quantum Test of the Equivalence principle and Space Time (QTEST), a concept for an atom interferometry mission on the International Space Station (ISS). The primary science objective of the mission is a test of Einstein's equivalence principle with two rubidium isotope gases at a precision of better than 10$^{-15}$. Distinct from the classical tests is the use of quantum wave packets and their expected large spatial separation in the QTEST experiment. This dual species atom interferometer experiment will also be sensitive to time-dependent equivalence principle violations that would be signatures for ultralight dark-matter particles. In addition, QTEST will be able to perform photon recoil measurements to better than 10$^{-11}$ precision. This improves upon terrestrial experiments by a factor of 100, enabling an accurate test of the standard model of particle physics and contributing to mass measurement, in the proposed new international system of units (SI), with significantly improved precision. The predicted high measurement precision of QTEST comes from the microgravity environment on ISS, offering extended free fall times in a well-controlled environment. Suppression of systematic errors by use of symmetric interferometer configurations and rejection of common-mode errors drives the QTEST design. It uses Bragg interferometry with a single laser beam at the "magic" wavelength, where the two isotopes have the same polarizability, for mitigating sensitivities to vibrations and laser noise, imaging detection for correcting cloud initial conditions and maintaining contrast, modulation of the atomic hyperfine states for reduced sensitivity to magnetic field gradients, two source regions for simultaneous time reversal measurements and redundancy, and modulation of the gravity vector using a rotating platform to reduce otherwise difficult systematics to below 10$^{-16}$.