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Encyclopedia of Geodesy pp 1–6Cite as

Cold-Atom Absolute Gravimetry

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Definition

Cold-atom absolute gravimetry: Measurement of the gravitational acceleration based on laser-cooled atom interferometry.

Introduction

The principle of measurement of the gravitational acceleration by dropping atoms rose up in the 1990s. The first applications quickly revealed the promising alternative of cold-atom gravimetry to classical free-fall techniques currently used to perform accurate and absolute measurements of the Earth gravity field (see Kasevich and Chu, 1992; Peters et al., 2009). Over the last two decades, practical realizations of instrumental devices based on atomic interferometry (cold-atom gravimeters) have thus been developed by different research laboratories in the world (Bodart et al., 2010; Charriere et al., 2012; Poli et al., 2010; Zhou et al., 2011; Altin et al., 2013; Bidel et al., 2013; Hauth et al., 2013; Hu et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2014). Based on the simple principle that measuring the acceleration of a freely falling mass provides an absolute...

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References and Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Paris, France

    Franck Pereira dos Santos

  2. Bureau Gravimétrique International (BGI), Toulouse, France

    Sylvain Bonvalot

  3. IRD/Geosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France

    Sylvain Bonvalot

Authors
  1. Franck Pereira dos Santos
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  2. Sylvain Bonvalot
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Franck Pereira dos Santos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geodetic Institute, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Erik Grafarend

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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dos Santos, F.P., Bonvalot, S. (2016). Cold-Atom Absolute Gravimetry. In: Grafarend, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geodesy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_30-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_30-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02370-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Cold-Atom Absolute Gravimetry
    Published:
    15 July 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_30-2

  2. Original

    Cold-Atom Absolute Gravimetry
    Published:
    29 April 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_30-1

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