Perturbations of the local gravity field due to mass distribution on precise measuring instruments: a numerical method applied to a cold atom gravimeter

We present a numerical method, based on a FEM simulation, for the determination of the gravitational field generated by massive objects, whatever geometry and space mass density they have. The method was applied for the determination of the self-gravity effect of an absolute cold atom gravimeter which aims at a relative uncertainty of 10−9. The deduced bias, calculated with a perturbative treatment, is finally presented. The perturbation reaches (1.3 ± 0.1) × 10−9 of the Earth's gravitational field.