Dear Friends,
The schedule for the upcoming Cosmology Seminars at MIT has
undergone a last minute change, so I hope it does not cause a lot
of confusion. Next Tuesday, April 6, the speaker will be Surjeet
Rajendran. The originally scheduled seminar by Mustafa Amin, on
"Lumps and Bumps in the Early Universe," has been postponed until
April 27. See you next Tuesday.
Joint Tufts/CfA/MIT Cosmology Seminar
Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2:30 pm
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Center for Theoretical Physics, Bldg. 6,
Cosman (4th Floor) Seminar Room, 6C-442
"Gravitational Wave Detection with Atom Interferometry"
Surjeet Rajendran, MIT
Refreshments served at 2:00 pm in the same room.
Abstract:
"I will discuss an atom interferometer configuration that can
detect gravitational waves. The terrestrial version of the
experiment could be sensitive to gravitational waves from solar
mass binaries out to megaparsec distances in the 1 Hz - 10 Hz
band. The satellite experiment probes the same spectrum as LISA
with comparable sensitivity. Each configuration compares two
widely separated atom interferometers run using common lasers.
The effect of the gravitational waves on the propagating laser
field produces the main effect in this configuration and enables
a large enhancement in the gravitational wave signal while
significantly suppressing many backgrounds. The use of ballistic
atoms as inertial test masses improves systematics coming from
vibrations and acceleration noise, and reduces spacecraft control
requirements."
Reminder: the Cosmology Seminar web page is at
http://www-ctp.mit.edu/cosmo.html -- Alan --