A prototype differential atom interferometer for fundamental physics

Abstract Gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter are among the most compelling frontiers in fundamental physics, motivating proposals for very-long-baseline atom interferometerssuch as AION 1 , MAGIS 2 , AICE 3 and AEDGE 4 that aim to detect at frequencies at which ground-based 5 and space-borne 6 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 87 Sr. 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 limit 7 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 matter 8,9 .

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Journal
Nature
Published
2026-06-17
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10617-1
Primary Topic
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A prototype differential atom interferometer for fundamental physics

G. Parish, J. Chen, D. A. Evans, A. Vick et al.
Nature
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
article

A prototype differential atom interferometer for fundamental physics

G. Parish, J. Chen, D. A. Evans, A. Vick, J. Mitchell, Z. Eyler, C. Foot, D. Lee, A. Carroll, K. Tkalcec, L. Badurina, T. Leese, M. Karzazi, A. Josset, N. Mouelle, L. Iannizzotto Venezze, S Hedges, I Wilmut, D. Bortoletto, X. Su, O. L. Buchmueller, I. Shipsey, C. Metelko, B. A. Millward, Y. Zhi, Henryk Karol Giemza, A. Brzakalik, B. Panchumarthi, D. Pathak Govardhan, C. Gomez-Monedero, A. James, Y. Tang, T. Bowcock, J. March-Russell, C. Lü, A. Lowe, V. Vaskonen, C. F. A. Baynham, J. N. Tinsley, U. Schneider, K. Clarke, G. Elertas, T. C. Thornton, B. Bostwick, H. Throssell, J. Schelfhout, J. Sander, K. Bridges, P. Majewski, M. Booth, E. Pasatembou, Z. Pan, K. Hughes, K. Hussain, B. Stray, J. Scheper, S. Lellouch, S. Zhang, U. Chauhan, D. Wood, M. Langlois, S. N. Balashov, O. Ennis, T. Hird, E. Bentine, T. Walker, R. Hobson, C. McCabe, M. Holynski, D. Blas, M. G. D. van der Grinten, Z. Tam, B. E. Sauer, T. Valenzuela, L. Hawkins, M. R. Tarbutt, M. Zeuner, A. L. Marchant, D. Newbold, J. Ellis, J. Coleman, M. G. Bason, A. Beniwal, T. L. Harte, J. Carlton, H. Labiad, D. Weatherill, S. Hindley, C. C. Hsu, K. Bongs, S. Dey, N. Callaghan
article en

Abstract

Abstract Gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter are among the most compelling frontiers in fundamental physics, motivating proposals for very-long-baseline atom interferometerssuch as AION 1 , MAGIS 2 , AICE 3 and AEDGE 4 that aim to detect at frequencies at which ground-based 5 and space-borne 6 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 87 Sr. 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 limit 7 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 matter 8,9 .

NatureVol. 654(8119)
Northwestern University (US), Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES), California Institute of Technology (US), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), University of Liverpool (GB), King's College London (GB), Institute for High Energy Physics (ES), Heidelberg University (DE), University of Cambridge (GB), Daresbury Laboratory (GB), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE), University of Oxford (GB), Ecogenomics (Japan) (JP), Intersect (AU), NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (GB), Kirchhoff (Germany) (DE), Imperial College London (GB), University of Virginia (US), University of Birmingham (GB), University of Tübingen (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
UK Research and Innovation, Centres de Recerca de Catalunya, Imperial College London, King's College London, University of Oxford, Generalitat de Catalunya, Isaac Newton Trust, Institut de Física d'Altes Energies, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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