OUR SPACE BASED GRAVITY WAVE DETECTOR EQUIPPED WITH ATOM INTERFEROMETERS AI HAS THE POTENTIAL TO ENABLE EXCITING SCIENCE SPANNING THE GAMUT FROM WHITE DWARF BINARIES TO INSPIRALLING BLACK HOLES AND COSMOLOGICALLY SIGNIFICANT PHENOMENA LIKE INFLATION. THIS MEASUREMENT APPROACH INTERFEROMETER AND MISSION CONCEPT WOULD OPEN A WHOLE NEW WINDOW ON THE ORIGIN OF OUR UNIVERSE HERALDING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF PHYSICS. UNLIKE LIGHT GRAVITATIONAL WAVES GW PERMIT OBSERVATIONS BEYOND THE SO CALLED SURFACE OF LAST SCATTERING; THAT IS BEFORE THE WHITE HOT FOG OF HYDROGEN PLASMA COOLED TO GIVE WAY TO THE FORMATION OF ATOMS. GODDARD HAS TEAMED WITH STANFORD TO EXPLORE THIS INNOVATIVE DETECTOR CONCEPT. WE ARE PROPOSING TO ANALYZE AND BETTER UNDERSTAND THE REALM OF APPLICABILITY OF THIS NEW DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR EXPLORING GW PHYSICS. THE TECHNOLOGICAL READINESS OF THIS APPROACH FOR SPACE FLIGHT WILL BE CRITICALLY EXAMINED IN LIGHT OF SIGNIFICANT DARPA AND DOD INVESTMENTS OVER THE PAST DECADE OR MORE. COLD ATOM-BASED INERTIAL SENSORS HAVE RECENTLY MADE IT OUT OF THE LABORATORY AND ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING ENGINEERED AND RUGGEDIZED FOR A VARIETY OF REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS IN THE FIELDS OF NAVIGATION AND REMOTE SENSING INCLUDING SOME VERY DEMANDING MISSION APPLICATIONS. GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTION IS ARGUABLY THE MOST COMPELLING SCIENTIFIC APPLICATION FOR ATOMIC QUANTUM SENSORS OF THIS SORT IN SPACE. THUS WE FEEL THAT THIS TECHNOLOGY IS RIPE FOR FOCUSED INVESTMENT BY NASA SPACE MISSION DEVELOPERS. THE GOAL OF THIS PHASE II PROPOSAL IS TO EXPERIMENTALLY DEMONSTRATE CORE OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND TO FURTHER DEVELOP DESIGN CONCEPTS INITIALLY EXPLORED IN PHASE I.THE PROPOSED CONFIGURATION IS CAPABLE OF GOING BEYOND THE LEGACY SYSTEM AND COULD EVEN BEGIN TO PROBE OR CONSTRAIN GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM INFLATION IF IT OCCURS AROUND THE GRAND UNIFICATION SCALE 1016 GEV THE MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE A LONG SOUGHT GOAL FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS. IF THE SENSITIVITY CAN BE INCREASED PAST THE LEVEL OF THE 500 KM BASELINE CONFIGURATION EVEN LOWER SCALES OF INFLATION CAN BE PROBED. FURTHERMORE MANY MODELS OF REHEATING AFTER INFLATION PRODUCE GRAVITATIONAL WAVES OBSERVABLE WITH THIS CONFIGURATION. NETWORKS OF COSMIC STRINGS ARE VISIBLE WITH STRING TENSIONS AS SMALL AS G? 10 18 AND POSSIBLY SMALLER. THIS WOULD ALSO BE AN EXCELLENT PROBE OF TEV SCALE PHASE TRANSITIONS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE. SUCH A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTOR WOULD THUS NOT ONLY PROVIDE VALUABLE INFORMATION ON ASTROPHYSICS AND GRAVITATION BUT IT WOULD ALSO DIRECTLY PROBE EARLY UNIVERSE COSMOLOGY AND THROUGH THIS THE HIGH ENERGY FRONTIER OF PHYSICS FAR BEYOND WHAT ANY COLLIDER CAN ACHIEVE.
$528,150FY2014National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
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