Long-time atom interferometry for tests of fundamental physics

Seminar

Light-pulse atom interferometry is a technique that is exquisitely sensitive to inertial forces. As such, it has exciting applications both in fundamental physics for precision tests of gravity, electrodynamics and quantum mechanics, as well as in practical situations for inertial navigation, geodesy, and timekeeping. In this work, I describe a 10 meter atomic fountain, designed for a precision test of the weak equivalence principle but with additional relevance in bounding proposed modifications of quantum mechanics, directly measuring general relativistic corrections, and detecting gravitational waves. This system is demonstrated to have the largest acceleration sensitivity to date by two orders of magnitude (6.7e-12 g). I also present precision measurements of Earth's rotation, the preparation of ultracold clouds to picokelvin effective temperatures, and current work to further improve the acceleration sensitivity through meter-scale separation between two halves of the atomic wavepacket.

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