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Gravitational decoherence of atomic interferometers

Brahim Lamine, Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Serge Reynaud

quant-pharXiv:quant-ph/0202086

Abstract

We study the decoherence of atomic interferometers due to the scattering of stochastic gravitational waves. We evaluate the `direct' gravitational effect registered by the phase of the matter waves as well as the `indirect' effect registered by the light waves used as beam-splitters and mirrors for the matter waves. Considering as an example the space project HYPER, we show that both effects are negligible for the presently studied interferometers.

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