Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 7: Precision Measurements and Metrology I (with A)
Q 7.3: Talk
Monday, March 23, 2015, 12:00–12:15, G/gHS
Mobile Absolute Gravity Measurements with the Atom Interferometer GAIN — •Christian Freier, Matthias Hauth, Vladimir Schkolnik, and Achim Peters — Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Physik, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin
The gravimetric atom interferometer (GAIN) is a transportable experiment which was designed to perform measurements of local gravity at a range of interesting locations in the context of geodesy and geophysics. It is based on ensembles of laser cooled 87Rb in an atomic fountain configuration and stimulated Raman transitions to implement a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer.
We report on mobile gravity measurements comparing GAIN with state-of-the-art falling corner-cube and super-conducting gravimeters. They also demonstrate the robustness and maturity of the instrument, enabling mobile long-term registrations of absolute gravity, something that is not feasible with commercially available absolute gravimeters.
The achieved sensitivity of 1.3×10−8 g/ √Hz without observable drift is comparable to other mobile atomic gravimeters and significantly better than that of falling corner-cube absolute gravimeters.
A remaining gravity value offset of less than 10−8 g is due to systematic effects which are discussed along with recent improvements of the set-up in order to further decrease this offset.