MIGA: combining laser and matter wave interferometry for mass distribution monitoring and advanced geodesy

B. Canuel (1) , S. Pelisson (1) , L. Amand (1) , A. Bertoldi (1) , E. Cormier (1) , B. Fang (1) , Stéphane Gaffet (1) , R. Geiger (1) , J. Harms (2) , D. Holleville (1) , A. Landragin (1) , G. Lefevre (1) , J. Lhermite (1) , N. Mielec (1) , M. Prevedelli (3) , I. Riou (1) , P. Bouyer (1)

1 MIGA - consortium
2 INFN, Sezione di Firenze - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze
3 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna

The Matter-Wave laser Interferometer Gravitation Antenna, MIGA, will be a hybrid instrument composed of a network of atom interferometers horizontally aligned and interrogated by the resonant field of an optical cavity. This detector will provide measurements of sub Hertz variations of the gravitational strain tensor. MIGA will bring new methods for geophysics for the characterization of spatial and temporal variations of the local gravity field and will also be a demonstrator for future low frequency Gravitational Wave (GW) detections. MIGA will enable a better understanding of the coupling at low frequency between these different signals. The detector will be installed underground in Rustrel (FR), at the “Laboratoire Souterrain Bas Bruit” (LSBB), a facility with exceptionally low environmental noise and located far away from major sources of anthropogenic disturbances. We give in this paper an overview of the operating mode and status of the instrument before detailing simulations of the gravitational background noise at the MIGA installation site.

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

B. Canuel, S. Pelisson, L. Amand, A. Bertoldi, E. Cormier, et al.. MIGA: combining laser and matter wave interferometry for mass distribution monitoring and advanced geodesy. SPIE Photonics Europe, Apr 2016, Brussels, France. ⟨10.1117/12.2228825⟩. ⟨hal-01738580⟩