Precision Gravity Tests with Atom Interferometry in Space

Abstract

Atom interferometry provides extremely sensitive and accurate tools for the measurement of inertial forces. Op- eration of atom interferometers in microgravity is expected to enhance the performance of such sensors. This paper presents two possible implementations of a dual 85 Rb- 87 Rb atom interferometer to perform di ff erential gravity mea- surements in space, with the primary goal to test the Weak Equivalence Principle. The proposed scheme is in the framework of two projects of the European Space Agency, namely Q-WEP and STE-QUEST. The paper describes the baseline experimental configuration, and discusses the technology readiness, noise and error budget for the two proposed experiments.