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arXiv:2608.18743

Technical Proposal for the Atom Interferometer CERN Experiment (AICE) Facility

Gianluigi Arduini, Nadja Augst, Mark G. Bason, Charles Baynham, Andrea Bertoldi, Gianfranco Bertone, Diego Blas, Daniela Bortoletto, Sougato Bose, Roberto Ales Bozzi, Oliver Buchmueller, Tamara Alice Bud, Clare Burrage, Sergio Calatroni, John Carlton, Vassilis Charmandaris, Maria Luisa Chiofalo, Pierre Cladé, Jonathon Coleman, Fabio Corsanego, Albert De Roeck, Arnaud Devienne, Fabio Di Pumpo, John Ellis, Pierre Fayet, Chris Foot, Elina Fuchs, Naceur Gaaloul, Susan Gardner, Enno Giese, Eduardo Granados, Saïda Guellati-Khelifa, Michael Guinchard, Timo Hakulinen, Tiffany Harte, Richard Hobson, Michael Holynski, Angelo Infantino, Alex Kehagias, Eva Kilian-Rademacher, Wolfgang Korsch, Damien Lafarge, Samuel Lellouch, Lucas Lombriser, Elias Lopez Asamar, J. Luis Lopez-Gonzalez, Michele Maggiore, Charline Marcel, Anna Marchant, Christopher McCabe, Gaetano Mileti, Peter Millington, Jeremiah Mitchell, Noam Mouelle, Angel Navascues Cornago, François Pillon, Rosa Poggiani, Johann Rafelski, Ernst M. Rasel, Maike Reckermann, Albert Roura, Rui Samoes, Federico Sanchez Nieto, Jack Sander, Carlo Scarcia, Jesse Schelfhout, Wolfgang Schleich, Dennis Schlippert, Ulrich Schneider, Steven Schramm, Florian Schreck, Olga Sergijenko, Marcelle Soares-Santos, Guglielmo M. Tino, Jonathan N. Tinsley, Tristan Valenzuela, Daniel Valuch, Maurits van der Grinten, Klaasjan van Druten, Ville Vaskonen, Wolf von Klitzing, Michael Werner

hep-exastro-ph.IMgr-qcphysics.atom-phphysics.ins-detquant-phSubmitted Aug 19, 2026• Announced Aug 20, 2026
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Abstract

We present the technical proposal for the Atom Interferometer CERN Experiment (AICE), a $\mathcal{O}(100)$ m vertical atom interferometer to be installed against the wall of the PX46 access shaft to the LHC. AICE is conceived as a versatile and flexible long-baseline atom-interferometry facility whose primary scientific goal is probing for bosonic ultralight dark matter (ULDM) in a mass range inaccessible to other experiments, with a secondary goal of pioneering the exploration of gravitational waves (GWs) with frequencies in the range ${\sim}$0.03-3 Hz as a pathfinder for future longer-baseline detectors. The initial configuration employs ultracold $^{87}$Sr atoms in a single-photon 698-nm interferometer with three shaft-based atom sources in a multi-source gradiometer geometry, supported by one surface reference source for laser stabilisation and diagnostics, to target scalar ULDM. Operation with $^{88}$Sr will give sensitivity to axion-like particles (ALPs), vector ULDM with $B-L$ couplings and violation of the principle of equivalence, while a $^{171}$Yb upgrade will improve the sensitivity to $B-L$ couplings and equivalence violations. Probing the Einstein equivalence principle (EP) and measuring $α$ will proceed in parallel with the ULDM searches. A conceptual feasibility study and a detailed technical implementation study have established that PX46 is a uniquely mature and implementation-ready site, with no technical showstoppers. Completing site preparation works during LS3 would enable the subsequent installation and operation of AICE without impacting HL-LHC operations. The detector design builds on the VLBAI and MAGIS experiments and the AION-10 Technical Design Report, scaling the strontium gradiometer architecture to the $\sim$100 m baseline. AICE is endorsed by the TVLBAI Proto-Collaboration, comprising 57 institutions in 22 countries.

Comments
170 pages, 64 figures, 24 tables. Technical Proposal for CERN review process of AICE

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Gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter are among the most compelling frontiers in fundamental physics, motivating proposals for very-long-baseline atom interferometerssuch as AION1, MAGIS2, AICE3 and AEDGE4 that aim to detect at frequencies at which ground-based5 and space-borne6 laser interferometers lose sensitivity. Very-long-baseline atom interferometers look for signals by comparing the quantum phase evolution of widely separated atomic ensembles interrogated by a common laser. However, their performance depends critically on suppressing noise sources, particularly laser phase noise. The experimental validation of such noise rejection remains an important challenge. Here we demonstrate a prototype differential atom interferometer based on the single-photon clock transition of fermionic 87Sr. Thus, we obtain a gradiometer configuration with a species intrinsically suited to kilometre-scale and space-baseline operation. The instrument operates at the standard quantum limit7 with no excess noise beyond atom shot noise. The differential configuration maintains quantum-limited sensitivity in the presence of several radians of artificially injected laser phase noise per shot, which emulates the conditions expected in a very-long-baseline atom interferometer. We also demonstrate the recovery of coherent oscillatory signals across a broad frequency range under fully phase-randomized conditions, a capability that is inaccessible to a single interferometer operating in the same regime. These results provide an experimental validation of the noise-immune measurement principle underlying very-long-baseline atom interferometers and mark an important step towards next-generation quantum sensors for gravitational-wave detection and searches for ultralight dark matter8,9.
The Atom Interferometry Observatory Network (AION) is a collaboration of seven UK institutions working on interferometry with strontium atoms. Development work on high-flux atom sources, transport and cooling of atoms, composite pulse sequences and narrow-bandwidth laser systems will be conducted in a coordinated parallel program in five dedicated laser laboratories and tested in table-top apparatus. After testing, the aim is for these sub-systems to be integrated together in a 10 m tall atom interferometer at the chosen site. The AION collaboration is linked to the MAGIS-100 strontium interferometer project in the US (contributing to the interferometry detection and readout platform, including cameras and analysis). A long-term objective is to set up a network of large-baseline atom interferometers with capability of making sensitive searches for ultralight dark matter and gravitational wave detection (with future generations of instruments). Within AION, the team at KCL investigates the applications to fundamental theoretical physics. AION is funded by the Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics programme of the UK Research & Innovation (STFC & EPSRC), starting in 2021. The institutions are: Imperial College and Kings College, London; Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool, Oxford; and the Rutherford Appleton Lab.
Atom interferometry is a maturing quantum technology which provides one of the most precise approaches to explore fundamental physics, e.g. to search for dark matter, and one day to observe gravitational waves in the frequency range from 10 mHz - 10 Hz. Standard atom interferometers use Bragg or Raman two-photon transitions for the coherent manipulation of matter waves. In a Michelson configuration for atom-aided gravitational waves detection, two orthogonal arms are built to reject laser noise, in the same way as optical interferometers. Atom interferometers utilizing an optical clock transition for coherent manipulation are less affected by the technical noise of the laser, and as a result that single baseline detectors become feasible.At LP2N, we are building a vertical gravity-gradiometer based on atom interferometry using strontium atoms probed on such a clock transition. The final experimental setup will implement a 6-meter tall atomic fountain to realize gradiometry with two or more separated atomic clouds.In my dissertation, I present the realization of the experimental setup in all its sub-systems, and the first experiments with atoms at millikelvin temperature obtained with the first cooling stage with blue light. The laser system for the second red cooling phase and for the coherent manipulation is ready; meanwhile, we realized a dual-frequency Zeeman slower that improves the atomic flux by a factor of six. We also present a study of an original scheme to achieve pulsed and fast light-atom interaction in a narrow-linewidth cavity by exploiting the Stark shift as a high bandwidth switch; this technique could open to the use of narrow-linewidth cavities – and notably their high power buildup - in several contexts, like atom interferometry and quantum information.
Advancing our knowledge of the universe increasingly relies on technologies capable of extremely precise measurement. Quantum sensors have emerged as promising tools for searching for new physics by pushing the boundaries of precision in measuring time, acceleration, and gravity. Two promising platforms are long-baseline atom interferometers and atomic clocks, both of which rely on cold atoms. This thesis lies at the intersection of cold-atom physics, quantum technology, and particle phenomenology. We report experimental progress from the AION project, a next-generation atom interferometer for the detection of ultra-light dark matter and mid-frequency gravitational waves. Within the collaboration, we present the first results from a red magneto-optical trap (MOT) for strontium-88 atoms. A seed–amplifier injection-locked laser system was developed to address the 1S0–3P1 transition at 689 nm, delivering 13.8 mW of light to the science chamber. Using this setup, we produced an atomic cloud at a temperature of (812 ± 4) nK in the narrowband red MOT, marking a critical milestone in the project. Secondly, the potential of next-generation atomic and molecular clocks in constraining theories that violate the weak equivalence principle (EP) is investigated. A search for variations in the electron–proton mass ratio is performed using publicly available data from UTC. A statistical framework is then developed to model clock noise and forecast sensitivity to signals arising in theories of dark matter, dark energy, unification, and other EP-violating scenarios, providing new and improved constraints. The framework is packaged into a tool that translates clock noise characteristics into constraints on fundamental physics theories. A preliminary study investigating the effect of data gaps in signal recovery shows that annual signals with amplitudes above 10⁻¹⁶ can be recovered even with up to 83% missing data.