Buch, Englisch, Band 168, 518 Seiten
Buch, Englisch, Band 168, 518 Seiten
Reihe: International School of Physics Enrico Fermi
ISBN: 978-1-58603-990-5
Verlag: IOS Press
After an introduction to atom optics and Bose-Einstein condensation, the theoretical foundations of cold atom interferometers, their use to test gravity, and their implementation in laboratory measurements of the Earth rotation and of Newton's gravitational constant are discussed. Several papers discuss the characteristics of gyroscopes and interferometers as sensors for inertial forces, starting from gyroscopes based on light waves and comparing their sensitivity to those based on matter waves. The final topic is the variation of fundamental constants, a subject that during the last years has attracted a lot of attention from different communities of physics.