Modeling gravitational wave detection with atom interferometry

The atom interferometry is a promising tool for the detection of the gravitational wave (GW) in the mid-frequency band ranging from 0.01 Hz to 10 Hz. Particularly, the multi-arm atom interference detectors can help to extract better data with the removal of fake detection. The existing models for GW detection with atom interferometry, however, are mainly focused on the one-dimensional situation, and cannot be directly applied to the multi-arm frame of the GW detection. In this work, we develop a universal theoretical model for GW detectors based on atom interferometry, in which the eikonal equation under general relativity is adopted to calculate the perturbation of the GW on light propagation, and the dependence of the response function on the azimuth is also discussed. We further analyze the dominant noise sources, which limits the detection capabilities of detector. This work provides a complete model for GW detection with atom interferometry, with the ability to analyze the performance of the multi-arm atom interference detectors. (paper)