Underground and airborne matter-wave inertial sensors: towards fundamental tests of gravitation
Abstract
We report here the first operation of an airborne quantum inertial sensor. We highlight their promising applications to inertial navigation and Earth observation. We also describe the improvement of the quantum sensor sensitivity in weightlessness, and discuss the possibility to conduct airborne or spaceborne tests of the Universality of Free Fall with quantum objects. We finally describe a matter-wave laser based interferometric gravitational antenna (MIGA). This infrastructure will allow for measuring with unprecedented resolution variations of the Earths gravity and of the strain of space-time allowing for enhancing the capabilities of existing and future gravitational wave detectors.