https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-022-00147-w
Review
Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map
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Higher Polytechnic School, University of the Balearic Islands, Valldemossa Road, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
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University of Washington, Physics-Astronomy Building, 15th Ave NE, 98195-1560, Seattle, WA, USA
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University of South Carolina, Main Street, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA
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Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, SW7 2AZ, London, UK
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CERN, CH-1211, 23, Geneva, Switzerland
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Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark
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King’s College London, Strand, WC2R 2LS, London, UK
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Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11080, Belgrade, Serbia
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Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
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European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via Giovanni Sansone, 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
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LIGO, California Institute of Technology, 1201 E California, 91125, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, NCSR Demokritos, 15310, Agia Paraskevi, Greece
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University of Pisa, Largo Lazzarino, 56122, Pisa, Italy
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Kitzbühel Centre for Physics, Kitzbühel, Austria
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University of Trieste, Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy
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Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste Section, Via Valerio 2, 34127, Trieste, Italy
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LP2N, Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences, Université Bordeaux-IOGS-CNRS: UMR 5298, F-33400, Talence, France
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SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, LNE, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014, Paris, France
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DPHY, ONERA, Université Paris-Saclay, Chemin de la Hunière—BP80100, F-91123, Palaiseau, France
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Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Valencia, Joint Centre Univ. Valencia-CSIC, 46100, Burjassot-Valencia, Spain
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IFIC, University of Valencia, Joint Centre Univ. Valencia-CSIC, 46100, Burjassot-Valencia, Spain
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Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, OX11 0QX, Didcot, UK
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University of Strathclyde, G4 0NG, Glasgow, UK
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Grup de Física Teòrica, Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain
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Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
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University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK
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Department of Mathematics and Earth Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Weiss 1, 34128, Trieste, Italy
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Institute of Quantum Technologies, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wilhelm-Runge-Straße 10, 89081, Ulm, Germany
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Institute of Microelectronics, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 43, 89081, Ulm, Germany
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Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3PU, Oxford, UK
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Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 5128, Mainz, Germany
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Department of Physics, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Instituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, Torre Norte, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal
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University of Liverpool, L69 7ZE, Liverpool, UK
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European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, PO Box 299, 2200 AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
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Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany
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University of Sussex, BN1 9QH, Brighton, UK
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Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Cacce 91, 10035, Turin, Italy
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Institute of Space Science, 409 Atomistilor Street, Bucharest, 077125, Magurele, Ilfov, Romania
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RHEA for European Space Agency, Keplerlaan 1, P.O. Box 299, 2200 AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
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University of St Andrews, North Haugh, KY16 9SS, St Andrews, UK
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Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167, Hannover, Germany
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Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA
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Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA
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Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
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Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China
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Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China
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Shanghai Branch CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 201315, Shanghai, China
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Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Sciences, 201315, Shanghai, China
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Department of Physics, University of Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, 56126, Pisa, Italy
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Sezione di Pisa, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, 56125, Pisa, Italy
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Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, 92521, Riverside, CA, USA
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Antwerp University, B 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1 Bethel Valley Road, 37830, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
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University of Nevada, 89557, Reno, Nevada, USA
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Italian Space Agency, Via del Politecnico, 00133, Rome, Italy
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University of Nis, Visegradska 33, Nis, Serbia
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Sezione di Trieste, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Via Valerio 2, 34127, Trieste, Italy
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 91109, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, 100 N. Plastira Street, Vassilika Vouton, GR 70013, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
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The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, The University of Tokyo, 277-8583, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
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Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
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Faculty of Science, Mohammed V University in Rabat, 4 Avenue Ibn Battouta, B.P. 1014 RP, Rabat, Morocco
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The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N Charles St, 21218, Baltimore, MD, USA
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University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, UK
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School of Physics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia
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Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, UK
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Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
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The Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, PA, USA
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University of Cambridge, J.J. Thomson Avenue, CB3 0HE, Cambridge, UK
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National Physical Laboratory, Hampton Road, TW11 0LW, Teddington, UK
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Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, 48202, Detroit, MI, USA
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Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ENS-Université PSL, Collège de France, Paris, France
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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, 12489, Berlin, Germany
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Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan
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ZARM, Universität Bremen, Am Fallturm 2, 28359, Bremen, Germany
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Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Callinstr. 30b, 30167, Hannover, Germany
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University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, 5007, Bergen, Norway
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Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland
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Vilnius University, Saulėtekio 3, LT-10257, Vilnius, Lithuania
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University of Ljubljana, Jadranska ulica 19, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Physics Division, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou, 15780, Athens, Greece
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University of Latvia, LV-1004, Riga, Latvia
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Teledyne e2v, 106 Waterhouse Lane, CM1 2QU, Chelmsford, UK
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University of Wisconsin, 53706, Madison, WI, USA
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Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662, Warsaw, Poland
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University of the Witwatersrand, 2050, Johannesburg, Wits, South Africa
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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, 462066, Bhopal, India
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Department of Physics, Brown University, 02912, Providence, RI, USA
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National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway Street, 80305, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France
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University of Warsaw, ul. Pasteura 5, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
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Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, IN, USA
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Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Av. Universidad 940, Ciudad Universitaria, C. P. 20131, Aguascalientes, Mexico
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Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, 14473, Potsdam, Germany
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Applied Physics Section of Environmental Science Department, Universitat de Lleida, Av. Jaume II, 69, 25001, Lleida, Spain
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Bates College, 04240, Lewiston, ME, USA
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Fayoum University, El-Fayoum, Egypt
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Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy
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School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, UK
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Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš, Visegradska 33, Niš, Serbia
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University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, UK
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Department of Physics, Koç University, 34450, İstanbul, Sarıyer, Turkey
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University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Glasgow, UK
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ColdQuanta, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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AMOLF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, 71003, Heraklion, Greece
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School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, BT7 1NN, Belfast, UK
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Center for Theoretical Physics PAS, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668, Warsaw, Poland
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Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
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Stevens Institute of Technology, Castle Point on the Hudson, 07030, Hoboken, NJ, USA
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Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden
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Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
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Hoursec, Energy Efficient AI On-Chip, Uetlibergstrasse 111B, 8045, Zurich, Switzerland
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University of Bologna, Viale Berti-Pichat 6/2, I-40126, Bologna, Italy
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Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, 85721-0081, Tucson, AZ, USA
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Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136, Trieste, Italy
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ETH Zurich, Robert-Gnehm-Weg 15, CH-8093, Zurich, Switzerland
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University of Delaware, 19716, Newark, Delaware, USA
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Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 2, 182 21, Praha, 8, Czechia
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Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Firenze, via Sansone 1, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
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MPA-Quantum, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
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Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany
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Laboratoire Univers et Théorie - UMR 8102, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, 5, pl. Jules Janssen, F-92190, Meudon, France
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University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090, Vienna, Austria
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Polish Academy of Sciences, PL 31-342, Krakow, Poland
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CEICO–FZU, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 1999/2, 182 21, Prague, Czechia
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INO-CNR, Largo Enrico Fermi 2, 50125, Firenze, Italy
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Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans s/n, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
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Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Edifici Nexus, Carrer del Gran Capità 2–4, despatx 201, 08034, Barcelona, Spain
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Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova, via Dodecaneso 33, 16146, Genova, Italy
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National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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School of Physics, University of Sydney, Physics Road, 2006, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
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High Energy Physics Group, 513 Keen Building, Dept. of Physics, Florida State University, 77 Chieflan Way, 32306, Tallahassee, FL, USA
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Departement Physik, Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056, Basel, Switzerland
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Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, 92697-4575, Irvine, CA, USA
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Thales Alenia Space, 26 av. J.-F. Champollion, 31100, Toulouse, France
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Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
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DiSPeA, Virgo Group, University of Urbino, via S. Chiara, I61029, Urbino, Italy
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Institute for Applied Physics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Hochschulstrasse 4A, D-64289, Darmstadt, Germany
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EQOQI, QUANTUM, Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55122, Mainz, Germany
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Photonics Laboratory, Engineering Physics, Münster University of Applied Sciences, Stegerwaldstr. 39, 48565, Steinfurt, Germany
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University of Malta, 2080, Msida, MSD, Malta
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Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, International University of Sarajevo, Hrasnička cesta 15, 71210, Ilidža, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
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Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, No. 1 Sect. 4 Roosevelt Road, 10617, Taipei, Taiwan
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Instituto de Telecomunicações, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
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Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 430071, Wuhan, China
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University of Cincinnati, 45221, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
ah
Oliver.Buchmueller@cern.ch
bz
John.Ellis@cern.ch
Received:
12
April
2022
Accepted:
8
October
2022
Published online:
20
November
2022
We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.
Angelo Bassi, Kai Bongs, Philippe Bouyer, Oliver Buchmueller, Luigi Cacciapuoti, Olivier Carraz, Maria Luisa Chiofalo, A. Michael Cruise, Albert De Roeck, Michael Doser, John Ellis, René Forsberg, Naceur Gaaloul, Richard Hobson, Sebastian Koke, Thomas Lévèque, Christian Lisdat, Federica Migliaccio, Eamonn Murphy, Ernst M. Rasel, Stephan Schiller, Christian Schubert, Carla Signorini, Guglielmo M. Tino, Wolf von Klitzing, Eric Wille, Peter Wolf and Lisa Wörner contributed equally to this work.
© The Author(s) 2022
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