Quantum physics exploring gravity in the outer solar system: the SAGAS project

Wolf, Peter; Bordé, Ch. J.; Clairon, A.; Duchayne, Loïc; Landragin, Arnaud; Lemonde, P.; Santarelli, G.; Ertmer, W.; Rasel, Ernst M.; Cataliotti, F. S.; Inguscio, M.; Tino, G. M.; Gill, P.; Klein, H. A.; Reynaud, Serge; Salomon, Christophe; Peik, E.; Bertolami, Orfeu; Gil, P. J. S.; Páramos, Jorge; Jentsch, C.; Johann, Ulrich; Rathke, Andreas; Bouyer, Philippe; Cacciapuoti, L.; Izzo, Dario; Natale, P. De; Christophe, Bruno; Touboul, Pierre; Turyshev, Slava G.; Anderson, J. D.; Tobar, Michael E.; Schmidt‐Kaler, F.; Vigué, J.; Madej, A.A.; Marmet, L.; Angonin, Marie-Christine; Delva, Pacôme; Tourrenc, P.; Métris, Gilles; Müller, Holger; Walsworth, Ronald L.; Lu, Ze-Xi; Wang, L J; Bongs, Kai; Toncelli, A.; Tonelli, M.; Dittus, Hansjörg; Lämmerzahl, Cláus; Galzerano, G.; Laporta, P.; Laskar, Jacques; Fienga, A.; Roques, F.; Sengstock, K.

doi:10.1007/s10686-008-9118-5

Cited by 119 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Super-ASTROD [161], Odyssey [162], SAGAS (Search for Anomalous Gravitation using Atomic Sensors) [163] and OSS (Outer Solar System) [164] are four mission concept to test fundamental physics and to explore outer solar system. Solar System Odyssey [162] is designed to perform a comprehensive set of gravitational tests in the Solar System.…”

Section: Outlook -On Going and Next-generation Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For improving the current accuracy of the measurement of the Eddington parameter γ, Odyssey proposes to use an improved multi-frequency radio link of the Cassini type together with a precision accelerometer and a possible laser tracking option and aims at measuring γ at an accuracy of 10 -7 . SAGAS [163] aims at flying highly sensitive atomic sensors (optical clock, cold atom accelerometer, optical link) on a Solar System escape trajectory. It also aims at measuring γ at an accuracy of 1-2 × 10 -7 .…”

Section: Outlook -On Going and Next-generation Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solar-system tests of the relativistic gravity

2017

One Hundred Years of General Relativity

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In 1859, Le Verrier discovered the Mercury perihelion advance anomaly. This anomaly turned out to be the first relativistic-gravity effect observed. During the 157 years to 2016, the precisions and accuracies of laboratory and space experiments, and of astrophysical and cosmological observations on relativistic gravity have been improved by 3-4 orders of magnitude. The improvements have been mainly from optical observations at first followed by radio observations. The achievements for the past 50 years are from radio Doppler tracking and radio ranging together with lunar laser ranging. At the present, the radio observations and lunar laser ranging experiments are similar in the accuracy of testing relativistic gravity. We review and summarize the present status of solar-system tests of relativistic gravity. With planetary laser ranging, spacecraft laser ranging and interferometric laser ranging (laser Doppler ranging) together with the development of drag-free technology, the optical observations will improve the accuracies by another 3-4 orders of magnitude in both the equivalence principle tests and solar-system dynamics tests of relativistic gravity. Clock tests and atomic interferometry tests of relativistic gravity will reach an ever-increasing precision. These will give crucial clues in both experimental and theoretical aspects of gravity, and may lead to answers to some profound issues in gravity and cosmology.

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Section: Outlook -On Going and Next-generation Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Outlook -On Going and Next-generation Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar-system tests of the relativistic gravity

2017

One Hundred Years of General Relativity

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“…Operated in space and on the ground at different locations, they could enable relativistic geodesy and improved fundamental physics tests [1,2]. Reliable and rugged optical clocks with high stability and accuracy are therefore an important need.…”

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confidence: 99%

Demonstration of a transportable 1 Hz-linewidth laser

et al. 2011

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We present the setup and test of a transportable clock laser at 698 nm for a strontium lattice clock. A master-slave diode laser system is stabilized to a rigidly mounted optical reference cavity. The setup was transported by truck over 400 km from Braunschweig to Düsseldorf, where the cavity-stabilized laser was compared to a stationary clock laser for the interrogation of ytterbium (578 nm). Only minor realignments were necessary after the transport. The lasers were compared using a Ti:Sapphire frequency comb as a transfer oscillator. The generated virtual beat showed a combined linewidth below 1 Hz (at 1156 nm). The transport back to Braunschweig did not degrade the laser performance, as was shown by interrogating the strontium clock transition.Optical clocks based on trapped cold atoms are now outperforming the best microwave clocks, thus enabling new studies and applications. Operated in space and on the ground at different locations, they could enable relativistic geodesy and improved fundamental physics tests [1,2]. Reliable and rugged optical clocks with high stability and accuracy are therefore an important need. So far, high-performance cold atom optical clocks are still bulky laboratory setups that cannot easily be transported. Therefore developments towards transportable optical clocks are required and have been initiated [3,4,5]. One of the most critical parts concerning transportability is the optical reference cavity that is used as a flywheel to ensure a high short-term frequency stability of the interrogation laser between the atom interrogation cycles. To achieve an optical linewidth of the clock laser in the range of one Hertz, the cavity has to be isolated from all external disturbances. Usually, the cavity is mounted very loosely in a vibration insensitive configuration [6,7,8] to avoid excessive forces that would lead to deformations of the cavity and fluctuations of the optical path length and therefore its resonance frequency. However, this prevents the cavity from being easily transported, because the resonator will move and might be damaged during transportation. In this letter, we describe a prototype clock laser for a transportable neutral atom lattice clock. As a first realistic test for future transportable clock setups it was transported from Braunschweig to Düsseldorf.The design of the laser system is constrained by requirements for its transportability in a car or truck and its spectral purity, for which typically a linewidth of 1 Hz and a fractional stability of 10 −15 on timescales of a few seconds is needed.The transportable clock laser setup consists of three separate parts: the laser breadboard (60 cm × 90 cm), a rolling table with the reference cavity inside a box for acoustic noise isolation (outer dimensions including the table 150 cm × 88 cm × 195 cm) and an electronics rack (60 cm × 60 cm × 180 cm). No effort was made to compactify the electronics. The laser breadboard includes a master-slave setup with a master laser in Littman configuration. The laser is lock...

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“…These conditions make Space an ideal place to carry out certain precision experiments, in particular for testing fundamental notions of space and time [1][2][3][4][5][6]. For example, atomic clocks, including optical clocks, are proposed to be operated in Space for testing the gravitational time dilation or the Shapiro effect.…”

Section: A Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A compact, robust, and transportable ultra-stable laser with a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10−15

Chen

Nevsky

Cardace

et al. 2014

Review of Scientific Instruments

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We present a compact and robust transportable ultra-stable laser system with minimum fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10 −15 at integration times between 1 to 10 s. The system was conceived as a prototype of a subsystem of a microwave-optical local oscillator to be used on the satellite mission STE-QUEST (Space-Time Explorer and QUantum Equivalence Principle Space Test, http://sci.esa.int/ste-quest/). It was therefore designed to be compact, to sustain accelerations occurring during rocket launch, to exhibit low vibration sensitivity, and to reach a low frequency instability. Overall dimensions of the optical system are 40 cm × 20 cm × 30 cm. The acceleration sensitivities of the optical frequency in the three directions were measured to be 1.7 × 10 −11 /g, 8.0 × 10 −11 /g, and 3.9 × 10 −10 /g, and the absolute frequency instability was determined via a threecornered hat measurement. The design is also appropriate and useful for terrestrial applications.

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Quantum physics exploring gravity in the outer solar system: the SAGAS project

Cited by 119 publications

References 45 publications

Solar-system tests of the relativistic gravity

Solar-system tests of the relativistic gravity

Demonstration of a transportable 1 Hz-linewidth laser

A compact, robust, and transportable ultra-stable laser with a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10−15

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