Sensitivity of a small matter-wave interferometer to gravitational waves

Abstract

We study the possibility of using matter wave interferometry techniques to build a gravitational wave detector. We derive the response function and find that it contains a term proportional to the derivative of the gravitational wave, a point which has been disputed recently. We then study in detail the sensitivity that can be reached by such a detector and find that, if it is operated near resonance, it can reach potentially interesting values in the high frequency regime. The correlation between two or more of such devices can further improve the sensitivity for a stochastic signal.