Letter of Intent: AICE -- 100m Atom Interferometer Experiment at CERN
Abstract
We propose an O(100)m Atom Interferometer (AI) experiment -- AICE -- to be installed against a wall of the PX46 access shaft to the LHC. This experiment would probe unexplored ranges of the possible couplings of bosonic ultralight dark matter (ULDM) to atomic constituents and undertake a pioneering search for gravitational waves (GWs) at frequencies intermediate between those to which existing and planned experiments are sensitive, among other fundamental physics studies. A conceptual feasibility study showed that this AI experiment could be isolated from the LHC by installing a shielding wall in the TX46 gallery, and surveyed issues related to the proximity of the LHC machine, finding no technical obstacles. A detailed technical implementation study has shown that the preparatory civil-engineering work, installation of bespoke radiation shielding, deployment of access-control systems and safety alarms, and installation of an elevator platform could be carried out during LS3, allowing installation and operation of the AICE detector to proceed during Run 4 without impacting HL-LHC operation. These studies have established that PX46 is a uniquely promising location for an AI experiment. We foresee that, if the CERN management encourages this Letter of Intent, a significant fraction of the Terrestrial Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometer (TVLBAI) Proto-Collaboration may wish to contribute to AICE.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.11867,
title = {Letter of Intent: AICE -- 100m Atom Interferometer Experiment at CERN},
author = {Charles Baynham and Andrea Bertoldi and Diego Blas and Oliver Buchmueller and Sergio Calatroni and Vassilis Charmandaris and Maria Luisa Chiofalo and Pierre Cladé and Jonathon Coleman and Fabio Di Pumpo and John Ellis and Naceur Gaaloul and Saïda Guellati-Khelifa and Tiffany Harte and Richard Hobson and Michael Holynski and Samuel Lellouch and Lucas Lombriser and Elias Lopez Asamar and Michele Maggiore and Christopher McCabe and Jeremiah Mitchell and Ernst M. Rasel and Federico Sanchez Nieto and Wolfgang Schleich and Dennis Schlippert and Ulrich Schneider and Steven Schramm and Marcelle Soares-Santos and Guglielmo M. Tino and Jonathan N. Tinsley and Tristan Valenzuela and Maurits van der Grinten and Wolf von Klitzing},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.11867},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
16 pages, including figures and appendices. Submitted to CERN LHCC as Letter of Intent. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2304.00614