EPJ Quantum Technol. (2020) 7: 6
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-020-0080-0

Review

AEDGE: Atomic Experiment for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration in Space

¹ Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
³ Institute of Physics, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
⁴ Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK
⁵ Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Trieste, and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste Section, Trieste, Italy
⁷ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
⁸ LP2N, Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences, Université Bordeaux-IOGS-CNRS:UMR 5298, Talence, France
⁹ Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
¹⁰ Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Valencia, and IFIC, Joint Centre Univ. Valencia-CSIC, Valencia, Spain
¹¹ Central Laser Facility, STFC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK
¹² Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
¹³ Department of Physics, King’s College London, London, UK
¹⁴ Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Heraklion, Greece
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
¹⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, UK
¹⁷ Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
¹⁸ National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK
¹⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
²⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
²¹ Institute of Space Science, Ilfov, Romania
²² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
²³ University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Heraklion, Greece
²⁴ Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, USA
²⁵ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, USA
²⁶ Department of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China
²⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica “Enrico Fermi”, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
²⁸ INFN, Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
²⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, USA
³⁰ Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Reno, USA
³¹ Antwerp University, Wilrijk, Belgium
³² Experimental Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
³³ Department of Physics, SEENET-MTP Centre, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia
³⁴ Particle Physics Department, STFC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK
³⁵ National Institute of Chemical Physics & Biophysics, Tallinn, Estonia
³⁶ Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
³⁷ Basic Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, The British University in Egypt (BUE), El Sherouk, Egypt
³⁸ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt
³⁹ University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco
⁴⁰ School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
⁴¹ Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany
⁴² LCAR, UMR5589, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
⁴³ SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, LNE, Paris, France
⁴⁴ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
⁴⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
⁴⁶ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
⁴⁷ Kavli Institute for Cosmology and Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK
⁴⁸ Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
⁴⁹ GRAPPA, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁵⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
⁵¹ University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
⁵² Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
⁵³ Università di Salerno and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Napoli, Italy
⁵⁴ Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
⁵⁵ Center for High Energy Physics, Fayoum University, Faiyum, Egypt
⁵⁶ Materials Science and Techonology Department, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
⁵⁷ Queen’s University, Belfast, UK
⁵⁸ Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA
⁵⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
⁶⁰ International School of Photonics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, India
⁶¹ Institute of Quantum Technologies, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Ulm, Germany
⁶² School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
⁶³ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
⁶⁴ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
⁶⁵ Faculty of Physics, VCQ, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
⁶⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sez. di Genova, Genova, Italy
⁶⁷ Physics Department, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
⁶⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia and LENS, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
⁶⁹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Firenze, Italy
⁷⁰ Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA
⁷¹ RAL Space, STFC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK
⁷² ZARM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
⁷³ Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany
⁷⁴ Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
⁷⁵ State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
⁷⁶ Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA

^* e-mail: o.buchmueller@imperial.ac.uk

Received: 23 October 2019
Accepted: 4 February 2020
Published online: 4 March 2020

Abstract

We propose in this White Paper a concept for a space experiment using cold atoms to search for ultra-light dark matter, and to detect gravitational waves in the frequency range between the most sensitive ranges of LISA and the terrestrial LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA/INDIGO experiments. This interdisciplinary experiment, called Atomic Experiment for Dark Matter and Gravity Exploration (AEDGE), will also complement other planned searches for dark matter, and exploit synergies with other gravitational wave detectors. We give examples of the extended range of sensitivity to ultra-light dark matter offered by AEDGE, and how its gravitational-wave measurements could explore the assembly of super-massive black holes, first-order phase transitions in the early universe and cosmic strings. AEDGE will be based upon technologies now being developed for terrestrial experiments using cold atoms, and will benefit from the space experience obtained with, e.g., LISA and cold atom experiments in microgravity.

KCL-PH-TH/2019-65, CERN-TH-2019-126