Atom Optics and Space Physics

Book excerpt: "The goal of this volume is to discuss the rapidly moving field of atom optics and interferometry with all its intricate aspects ranging from fundamental physics to applications and the theory of relativity. The breathtaking success in manipulating atoms using lasers has encouraged these two so far disjunct communities to move closer together and begin collaborations. After an introduction to atom optics and Bose-Einstein condensation, the theoretical foundations of cold atom interferometers, their use to test gravity, and their implementation in laboratory measurements of the earth rotation and of Newton's gravitational constant are discussed. Several papers discuss the characteristics of gyroscopes and interferometers as sensors for inertial forces, starting from gyroscopes based on light waves and comparing their sensitivity to those based on matter waves. The final topic is the variation of fundamental constants, a subject that during the last years has attracted a lot of --