Three-axis superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity experiments

Abstract

Superconducting differential accelerometers have been used to test Newton’s inverse square law and have been proposed for other sensitive experiments. These include searches for spin-mass coupling, detecting Earth’s gravitomagnetic field, and testing the Equivalence Principle. This article discusses the principle and performance of a sensitive three-axis gravity gradiometer. This device utilizes quantized flux and the Meissner effect to provide stable test mass levitation and signal coupling, and superconducting quantum interference devices to provide very low-noise amplification of the signals. The instrument comprises a total of nine superconducting accelerometers, six linear and three angular. This configuration permits simultaneous measurement of the diagonal components of the gravity gradient tensor as well as platform acceleration in all six degrees of freedom. An analysis of this instrument is presented along with experimental results. Methods to correct for various motion-induced errors are demonstrated. Other error sources are also discussed. The resulting performance of the superconducting gravity gradiometer is 2×10−11 s−2 Hz−1/2.