Hannover 2013 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 37: Precision measurements and metrology IV (with Q)
A 37.4: Talk
Thursday, March 21, 2013, 15:00–15:15, F 128
MAIUS - a rocket-based matter-wave interferometer — •Stephan Tobias Seidel1, Ernst Maria Rasel1, and The Quantus-Team1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 — 1Institut für Quantenoptik, LU Hannover — 2ZARM, Universität Bremen — 3Institut für Physik, HU Berlin — 4Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg — 5Institut für Quantenphysik, Universität Ulm — 6Institut für angewandte Physik, TU Darmstadt — 7MUARC, University of Birmingham — 8FBH, Berlin — 9MPQ, Garching
A central goal of modern physics is the test of fundamental principles of nature with ever increasing precision. One of these contains of a differential measurement on freely falling ultra-cold clouds of two atomic species and thus using atom interferometry to test the weak equivalence principle in the quantum domain. By performing such an experiment in a weightless environment the precision of the interferometer can be considerably increased. With the QUANTUS experiments operating in the drop tower Bremen we were able to realize the first BEC based interferometer in microgravity. As a next step towards the transfer of such a system in space, either on board the ISS or as a dedicated satellite mission, a chip-based atom interferometer operating on a sounding rocket is currently being built. The success of this project would mark a major advancement towards a precise measurement of the equivalence principle with a space-born atom interferometer.
The QUANTUS project is supported by the German Space Agency DLR with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under grant number DLR 50WM1131.