Gravitational decoherence of atomic interferometers

Brahim Lamine (1) , Marc-Thierry Jaekel (2) , Serge Reynaud (1)

1 LKB (Jussieu) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
2 LPTENS - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'ENS [École Normale Supérieure]

We study the decoherence of atomic interferometers due to the scattering of stochastic gravitational waves. We evaluate the `direct' gravitational effect registered by the phase of the matter waves as well as the `indirect' effect registered by the light waves used as beam-splitters and mirrors for the matter waves. Considering as an example the space project HYPER, we show that both effects are negligible for the presently studied interferometers.

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]; Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

Brahim Lamine, Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Serge Reynaud. Gravitational decoherence of atomic interferometers. The European Physical Journal D : Atomic, molecular, optical and plasma physics, 2002, 20, pp.165-176. ⟨hal-00002165⟩