2002/10/01 by Ch J Bord · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
paper · doi:10.1088/0026-1394/39/5/5
crossref issued 2002/10/01 · crossref published 2002/10/01 · crossref published-print 2002/10/01 · openalex publication_date 2002/10/01 · crossref published-online 2003/02/18 · crossref created 2003/02/19 · crossref deposited 2020/04/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We show that the language of atom interferometry provides a unified picture for microwave and optical atomic clocks as well as for gravito-inertial sensors. The sensitivity and accuracy of these devices is now such that a new theoretical framework common to all these interferometers is required that includes: (a) a fully quantum mechanical treatment of the atomic motion in free space and in the presence of a gravitational field (most cold-atom interferometric devices use atoms in ``free fall'' in a fountain geometry); (b) an account of simultaneous actions of gravitational and electromagnetic fields in the interaction zones; (c) a second quantization of the matter fields to take into account their fermionic or bosonic character in order to discuss the role of coherent sources and their noise properties; (d) a covariant treatment including spin to evaluate general relativistic effects. A theoretical description of atomic clocks revisited along these lines is presented, using both an exact propagator of atom waves in gravito-inertial fields and a covariant Dirac equation in the presence of weak gravitational fields. Using this framework, recoil effects, spin-related effects, beam curvature effects, the sensitivity to gravito-inertial fields and the influence of the coherence of the atom source are discussed in the context of present and future atomic clocks and gravito-inertial sensors.