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Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

Iván Alonso, C. Alpigiani, Brett Altschul, Henrique M. Araújo, G. Arduini, J. Arlt, Leonardo Badurina, Antun Balaž, Satvika Bandarupally, Barry C. Barish, M. Barone, Michele Barsanti, Steven D. Bass, Angelo Bassi, Baptiste Battelier, Charles F. A. Baynham, Quentin Beaufils, Aleksandar Belić, Joël Bergé, J. Bernabéu, Andréa D Bertoldi, R. Bingham, S. Bize, Diego Blas, Kai Bongs, Philippe Bouyer, Carla Braitenberg, Christian Brand, Claus Braxmaier, Alexandre Bresson, O. L. Buchmueller, Dmitry Budker, Luís Bugalho, Sergey V. Burdin, L. Cacciapuoti, Simone Callegari, Xavier Calmet A, Davide Calonico, B. Canuel, Laurenţiu-Ioan Caramete, Olivier Carraz, Donatella Cassettari, Chakraborty P., Swapan Chattopadhyay, Upasna Chauhan, Xuzong Chen, Yu-Ao Chen, Maria Luisa Chiofalo, J. P. Coleman, Robin Corgier, Joseph P. Cotter, MichaelCruise A., Yanou Cui A, Gavin Davies, DeRoeck A., M. Demarteau, Andrei Derevianko, Marco Di Clemente, Goran S. Djordjević, Sandro Donadi, Olivier Doré, P.J. Dornan, M. Doser, Giannis Drougakis, Jacob Dunningham, S. Easo, Joshua Eby, Gedminas Elertas, John R. Ellis, Evans D., Pandora Examilioti, Pavel Fadeev, M. Fani’, F. Fassi, M. Fattori, Michael A. Fedderke, Daniel Felea, Chen-Hao Feng, Jorge Ferreras, R. Flack, V. V. Flambaum, Rene Forsberg, T. M. Fromhold, Naceur Gaaloul, B. M. Garraway, Maria Georgousi, Andrew A. Geraci, Kurt Gibble, V. Gibson, Patrick Robert Gill, Gian Francesco Giudice, J. Goldwin, Oliver Gould, Oleg Grachov, Peter W. Graham, Dario Grasso, Paul F. Griffin, Christine Guerlin, Mustafa Gündoğan, Ratnesh Kumar Gupta

Published Jan 1, 2022• 65 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.

DOI
10.1140/epjqt/s40507-022-00147-w

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We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.
Abstract We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.
"What are atoms doing in space anyways?" This talk will provide a brief overview of applications of quantum technologies in space ranging from precise timing and inertial measurements to fundamental physics. Quantum technologies have seen a wide field of applications in medicine, geosciences, computing and communications, in many cases bridging the gap from laboratory experiments to commercial products in the last decade. For terrestrial applications that is. But what about going to space? Quantum physics based sensors and experiments promise higher accuracy, sensitivity or better long term stability as they rely on immutable properties of atoms. When properly manipulated, these (ultra-)cold atoms are likely to outperform state of the art instruments. Experiments conducted on sounding rockets demonstrated important steps like Bose-Einstein Condensate creation during a few minutes in microgravity, enabling more advanced quantum experiments in the future. The International Space Station and the Tiangong Space Station host dedicated experiments like ultrastable clocks as well as flexible research infrastructure for fundamental research benefitting from long free-fall times. However, the deployment of such technologies on satellites is not as advanced. Satellite missions utilizing quantum sensors or performing long term experiments are subject to studies and proposals backed by a broad scientific community aiming at better understanding of climate change, interplanetary navigation or tests of general relativity. First steps towards realization of such missions are taken by ESA, NASA and various national space agencies as well as universities funded by national agencies or the EU. This talk will detect the current state of atoms in space and give an overview of active programs to deploy quantum sensors on operational satellite missions. The focus is on future applications in geosciences and related fields employing the same technology.
This report provides an assessment on cold atom interferometry (CAI) gravity sensing for Earth Observation (EO), and is intended as an instrument to facilitate the interactions between the different communities involved in the definition of a related satellite mission. Indeed, the definition of the objectives of future gravity missions and of the technologies needed for their implementation is the result of complex negotiations and compromises: geodesy and geophysics researchers detail the scientific requirements dictated by their investigation areas (e.g. solid Earth dynamics, ocean mass and heat transport, ice sheets and glaciers evolution), policymakers express their concerns and their priorities (e.g. natural hazards risk assessment, ground water monitoring, floods and droughts forecast), engineers and technology experts devise and implement the most suitable techniques to actually build the satellite and its gravity sensing payload. \nAs we will show in this report, the scientific consensus is that the scientific objectives of a next generation gravity mission (NGGM) to be deployed within a ~10 year timeframe can be achieved by upgrading established technologies already used in gravity-measuring satellites. Transformative technologies such as CAI-based gravity sensors leveraging Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) of ultra-cold atoms may come to play a role in the longer term, provided that several technology challenges are overcome; in addition, further interdisciplinary work and the simulation of detailed mission scenarios are needed to fully establish their actual usefulness with regards to the attainment of future gravity missions scientific objectives.\nThe scientific community seems to agree on the opportunity of an intermediate stepping stone, which could take the form of a scientific mission with a dedicated satellite, in order to test and prove the in-space feasibility and the actual usefulness of CAI-based gravity sensors.
Recent developments in quantum technology have resulted in a new generation of sensors for measuring inertial quantities, such as acceleration and rotation. These sensors can exhibit unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy when operated in space, where the free-fall interrogation time can be extended at will and where the environment noise is minimal. European laboratories have played a leading role in this field by developing concepts and tools to operate these quantum sensors in relevant environment, such as parabolic flights, free-fall towers, or sounding rockets. With the recent achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation on the International Space Station, the challenge is now to reach a technology readiness level sufficiently high at both component and system levels to provide “off the shelf” payload for future generations of space missions in geodesy or fundamental physics. In this roadmap, we provide an extensive review on the status of all common parts, needs, and subsystems for the application of atom-based interferometers in space, in order to push for the development of generic technology components.
Atomic gravimetry measures the gravitional acceleration of an ensemble of identical neutral atoms through the atom interferometry based on Raman two-photon transition, where the Raman lasers are used as “optical ruler" and the identical neutral atoms play the role of test mass and quantum storage of gravity field information. As the novel gravimetry system suffers no mechanical wear and works at a higher repetition rate, atom gravimetry can reach a much better short-term sensitivity than the classical falling-corner-cube counterpart, and the accuracy is reasonably well. Since the very first in-laboratory device built over 30 years ago, atomic gravimetry has matured to a versatile tool that offers both precise and accurate absolute gravity measurement to fundamental research and metrology, such as testing the weak equivalence principle or linking the mass and weight of the test mass in Watt (Kibble) balance. As the current rapid development of compact cold-atom gravimeters, atomic gravimetry is moving out of the laboratory to be used as a quantum enhancement of classical devices in dynamical measurement, such as geophysics survey, inertial navigation and space mission. We review the roadmap for the development of cold-atom absolute gravimetry, highlight recent advances in the dynamical measurement using compact cold atom gravimeters and discuss the associated technological challenges. In the future, with the maturity of its application in dynamical measurement or civil engineering and the innovation in atom interferometry theory, atomic gravimetry could play a more and more important role in our life.
Quantum sensing has emerged as a promising approach for spaceborne Earth Observation (EO) with the potential to offer higher accuracy, sensitivity and stability than instruments used in EO missions so far. While several quantum sensors have been developed and successfully tested in ground-based experiments, with some of them even available as commercial devices, the identification of their potential applications in space remains a challenge. Nevertheless, there are some promising technologies, including cold-atom interferometers, Rydberg receivers, atomic vapor- and Nitrogen-Vacancy center-based magnetometers, and quantum lidar, that show potential for enhancing EO capabilities. In this presentation, we will discuss the latest developments and challenges in quantum sensing for EO at the European Space Agency (ESA), highlighting the most promising technologies and their potential applications. We will also discuss ongoing efforts at ESA to identify potential applications of these sensors and the roadmap for their deployment. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion of the future prospects for quantum sensing in EO and the wider space exploration domain.