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Broadband Limits on Stochastic Length Fluctuations from a Pair of Table-Top Interferometers

Abhinav Patra1,*, Lorenzo Aiello1,†, Aldo Ejlli1, William L. Griffiths1, Alasdair L. James1, Nikitha Kuntimaddi1, Ohkyung Kwon2,1, Eyal Schwartz1, Henning Vahlbruch3 et al.

Sander M. Vermeulen1, Keiko Kokeyama1, Katherine L. Dooley1, and Hartmut Grote1

  • *Contact author: patraa1@cardiff.ac.uk
  • †Present address: Università di Roma Tor Vergata, I-00133 Roma, Italy and INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata, I-00133 Roma, Italy.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 101402 – Published 3 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/61j9-cjkk

Abstract

The Quantum-Enhanced Space-Time (QUEST) experiment consists of a pair of colocated power recycled Michelson interferometers, each designed to have a broadband, shot-noise-limited displacement sensitivity of 2×10−19  m/Hz from 1 to 200 MHz. Here, we present the first results of QUEST, with a search up to 80 MHz, that set new upper limits on correlated length fluctuations from 13 to 80 MHz, constituting the first broadband constraints for a stochastic gravitational wave background at these frequencies. In a coincident observing run of 104  s, the averaging of the cross-correlation spectra between the two interferometer signals resulted in a strain sensitivity of 3×10−20  1/Hz, making QUEST the most sensitive table-top interferometric system to date.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 101402– Published 3 September, 2025
  • Received 5 December 2024
  • Accepted 18 June 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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