MIGA: Combining laser and matter wave interferometry for mass distribution monitoring and advanced geodesy

TL;DR

MIGA is a hybrid atom and laser interferometer designed to monitor mass distribution and gravitational variations, advancing geophysics and gravitational wave detection at low frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid interferometer combining laser and matter wave techniques for geophysical and gravitational wave applications.

Findings

Simulations of gravitational background noise at the site.

Operational status and mode of the MIGA instrument.

Potential for low-frequency gravitational wave detection.

Abstract

The Matter-Wave laser Interferometer Gravitation Antenna, MIGA, will be a hybrid instrument composed of a network of atom interferometers horizontally aligned and interrogated by the resonant field of an optical cavity. This detector will provide measurements of sub Hertz variations of the gravitational strain tensor. MIGA will bring new methods for geophysics for the characterization of spatial and temporal variations of the local gravity field and will also be a demonstrator for future low frequency Gravitational Wave (GW) detections. MIGA will enable a better understanding of the coupling at low frequency between these different signals. The detector will be installed underground in Rustrel (FR), at the "Laboratoire Souterrain Bas Bruit" (LSBB), a facility with exceptionally low environmental noise and located far away from major sources of anthropogenic disturbances. We give in this paper an overview of the operating mode and status of the instrument before detailing simulations of the gravitational background noise at the MIGA installation site.