Regular papers

Precision measurements of gravity using cold atom sensors

¹ Istituto di Cibernetica CNR, via Campi Flegrei 34, I-80078 Pozzuoli (NA) Italy
² Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita‘ di Firenze - INFN, via Sansone 1 Polo Scientifico, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze) Italy
³ Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, CNRS, Campus Polytechnique, RD 128, F-91127 Palaiseau Cedex, France
⁴ ESA Reasearch and Scientific Support Department, ESTEC, Keperlaan 1 - P.O. Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk ZH, The Netherlands
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Napoli, via Cinthia, I-80126, Italy
⁶ Dipartimento di Chimica Fisica e Inorganica, Università di Bologna, V.le Risorgimento 4, I-40136 Bologna, Italy
⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica ”Enrico Fermi” - Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica and LENS, Università di Firenze - INFN, via Sansone 1 Polo Scientifico, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze) Italy

^* marella.deangelis@fi.infn.it

Received: 19 March 2009

Abstract

We present a synthetic view of experiments we are performing using atom interferometry to determine the gravitational constant G and to test the Newtonian gravitational law at micrometric distances. Accurate gravity measurements with atom interferometry also find applications in geophysical studies and in satellite missions for the geoid mapping. Experiments in progress, using ultracold atom devices, for applications in geophyiscal and space monitoring will be also described.