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Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry
The unprecedented precision of atom interferometry will soon lead to
laboratory tests of general relativity to levels that will rival or exceed
those reached by astrophysical observations. We propose such an experiment that
will initially test the equivalence principle to 1 part in 10^15 (300 times
better than the current limit), and 1 part in 10^17 in the future. It will also
probe general relativistic effects--such as the non-linear three-graviton
coupling, the gravity of an atom's kinetic energy, and the falling of light--to
several decimals. Further, in contrast to astrophysical observations,
laboratory tests can isolate these effects via their different functional
dependence on experimental variables.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; v2: Minor changes made for publicatio
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