A 150 meter-long optical cavity with 3 atom interferometers to detect minute variations in the gravity fields
Funded by the ANR, MIGA is an “Equipement d’Excellence” project which aims at building the first laser-based atomic interferometer to study variations of the strain tensor of space-time and gravitation. Using a novel approach based on quantum mechanics, this equipment will enable us to deepen our understanding of the terrestrial gravitational field on a wide frequency window ranging from a few tenth of hertz to several hundreds. 1
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MIGA is an EquipEx project funded by the ANR (Investissements d’avenir). The MIGA project is the first large-scale laser-based atom interferometer ever built. This underground Matter-wave laser Interferometric Gravitation Antenna (MIGA) is currently being built in Rustrel, France, within the LSBB, an underground low-noise laboratory. Based on the use of cold atom gravitation sensors, MIGA will enable the detection of gravitational waves in the [0.1 − 10 Hz] frequency band, thus allowing to explore terrestrial gravity and gravitational fields of astrophysical sources. Composed of 3 light pulse atom interferometers using the resonant feld of a long ultra-stable optical cavity within a 300m long optical cavity. MIGA is the first large scale instruments based on quantum mechanics for the exploration of gravity, offering new applications in geoscience and fundamental physics.