Can someone tell me more about atoms as gyroscopes?
The Interferometric gyro is based on the Sagnac effect, which is proportional to the energy of the interfering particles. Compared to a similar optical gyro, an atomic gyroscope would have 10 billion times higher sensitivity. This atomic gyro technology is being developed to support future space missions. The new capability would be particularly helpful in deep space automated navigation, in precision guidance such as telescope pointing and in observations of fundamental physics tests. The atomic gyroscope relies on the peculiar quantum-mechanical wave property of all matters. Otherwise it works in principle the same way as optical gyroscopes. Atomic waveguides (that correspond to fiber in optics) will be developed to confine the atom wave and form the necessary interferometric loop. When they are working, atomic gyros send laser-cooled atoms along these atom wave-guides in the loop. This beam of atoms is split into two arms of a loop and recombined. A detectable shift in the distance
