Bulletin of the American Physical Society
50th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics APS Meeting
Volume 64, Number 4
Monday–Friday, May 27–31, 2019; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Session J02: Probes of Fundamental Physics with Atom Interferometry |
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Sponsoring Units: GPMFC Chair: Adam West, University of California, Los Angeles Room: Wisconsin Center 101AB |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 10:30AM - 11:00AM |
J02.00001: Measurement of the fine-structure constant as a test of the Standard Model Invited Speaker: Holger Mueller Measuring the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ allows testing the consistency of theory and experiment across physics. Using the recoil frequency of cesium-133 atoms in a matter-wave interferometer, we recorded the most accurate measurement of the fine-structure constant to date: $\alpha = 1/137.035999046(27)$ at $2.0 \times 10^{-10}$ accuracy. Comparison with Penning trap measurements of the electron gyromagnetic anomaly $g_e-2$ via the Standard Model of particle physics is now limited by the uncertainty in $g_e - 2$. Implications for dark-sector candidates and electron substructure may be a sign of physics beyond the Standard Model that warrants further investigation. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:00AM - 11:30AM |
J02.00002: Airborne and underground matter-wave interferometers: geodesy, navigation and general relativity Invited Speaker: Philippe Bouyer The remarkable success of atom coherent manipulation techniques has motivated competitive research and development in precision metrology. Matter-wave inertial sensors – accelerometers, gyrometers, gravimeters – based on these techniques are today at the forefront of their respective measurement classes. Atom inertial sensors provide nowadays about the best accelerometers and gravimeters and allow, for instance, to make the most precise monitoring of gravity, navigate without GPS or device precise tests of general relativity. I will present some recent advances in these fields:\\ 1) - We operate matter-wave interferometers in the micro-gravity environment created during parabolic flights. Using two atomic species allows to verify that two massive bodies will undergo the same gravitational acceleration regardless of their mass or composition, allowing a test of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP). Recently, a laboratory class microgravity simulator allows to enhance these measurements with sample of ultracold atoms cooled down to nanoKelvin temperatures.\\ 2) - Matter-wave interferometry can be used to study sub-Hertz variations of the strain tensor of space-time and gravitation. MIGA, which is currently built in France, will allow the monitoring of the evolution of the gravitational field at unprecedented sensitivity, which will be exploited both for geophysical studies and for Gravitational Waves (GWs) detection. In the initial instrument configuration, standard atom interferometry techniques will be adopted, which will bring to a peak strain sensitivity of $2\times 10 ^{-13}/\sqrt{\rm Hz}$ at 2 Hz. This demonstrator will enable to study the techniques to push further the sensitivity for the future development of gravitational wave detectors based on large scale atom interferometers.\\ 3) - Inertial navigation systems determine the position of a moving vehicle by continuously measuring its acceleration and rotation rate, and subsequently integrating the equations of motion. These systems are limited by slow drifts, on the order of 10 $\mu$g which, in the absence of aiding sensors such as satellite navigation systems, leads to large position errors. Ultrastable cold-atom interferometers offer a promising when hybridizing stable matter-wave based inertial sensor with a classical accelerometer. By using correlations between the quantum and classical devices to track the bias drift of the latter and form a hybrid sensor, an optimal estimate of the bias with a stability of 10 ng after 11 h of integration has been demontrated thus offering new prospect for the development of quantum based navigation systems. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
J02.00003: Proposal for measuring Big G using the NASA Cold Atom Lab aboard the International Space Station Mark Edwards, Colson Sapp, Charles Clark We propose an atom interferometry (AI) experiment to measure Big G constant in a microgravity environment. Our experiment is assumed to be conducted in NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory currently deployed to the Interna- tional Space Station. The idea is to carry out an AI sequence many times, first with a source mass present and then with no source mass. The basic AI sequence is to split a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into two pieces using pulsed optical lattice potentials. These pieces fly apart in the presence of an harmonic potential and finally stop after one quarter trap period. The trap is then turned off for a wait time. The pieces acquire a relative velocity difference due to the differential grav- itational pull of the source mass. The trap is turned back on and the pieces then recombine and are split again. The result is two clouds left nearly motionless near the trap center creating an interference pattern due to their relative velocity. We have simulated this sequence using the Lagrangian Variational Method (LVM) where the trial wave function is a sum of Gaussian clouds. We show how big G can be extracted from the interference pattern that results and present an approximate error budget for the measurement. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:42AM - 11:54AM |
J02.00004: Twin-lattice interferometry for infrasound gravitational wave detection with atoms Sven Abend, Martina Gebbe, Matthias Gersemann, Christian Schubert, Ernst M. Rasel Atom interferometry offers an interesting perspective for the detection of gravitational waves in a frequency band between eLISA and Advanced LIGO. We investigate a novel geometry for a ground-based device combining several a horizontal baseline with a single axis laser link between the atom interferometers, and suppressing errors sources otherwise implying very strict requirements onto the atomic source. It is based on recent developments in symmetric beam splitters with scalable momentum transfer in a twin-lattice, a lattice of two frequencies retro-reflected at a mirror. Combining Bloch oscillations and double Bragg diffraction we developed a novel coherent relaunch technique where atoms are coherently relaunched on a parabolic trajectory in a single laser beam. Based on symmetric and scalable momentum transfer in the twin-lattice, interferometry with a momentum separation of up to 408 photon momenta is demonstrated, which is to our best knowledge the largest in an interferometer reported to date. Achieving these large momentum splittings is one of the cornerstones to reach the necessary sensitivities of gravitational wave detector. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:54AM - 12:06PM |
J02.00005: Offset simultaneous conjugate interferometers and Bloch beamsplitters for measuring the fine structure constant Zachary Pagel, Weicheng Zhong, Richard Parker, Holger Mueller Precision measurement of the fine-structure constant (alpha) provides one of the most stringent tests of quantum electrodynamics and the standard model of physics. Last year, our group published a measurement of alpha with 0.2 ppb uncertainty, and placed constraints on classes of beyond the standard model particles. We have since studied techniques that will help improve sensitivity and systematics in our next-generation measurement of alpha. First, we demonstrate an offset simultaneous conjugate interferometer (OSCI) as a method to cancel phase shifts resulting from the derivatives of forces. OSCI is primarily used to cancel the gravity gradient phase shift in our experiment, the largest correction made to our measured value of alpha. We also numerically and experimentally study Bloch beamsplitters, a novel beamsplitter technique for atoms which is ideally suited for large momentum transfer (LMT) interferometers. Experimentally, the Bloch beamsplitter technique is shown to be coherent and the LMT potential of the technique is demonstrated. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 12:06PM - 12:18PM |
J02.00006: A well-controlled environment for Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry D. Tell, E. Wodey, C. Meiners, R.J. Rengelink, C. Schubert, D. Schlippert, W. Ertmer, E.M. Rasel Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry (VLBAI) introduces a new scale of ground-based interferometers employing ultracold atoms on a vertical baseline of several meters. This enables absolute measurements of gravity and its gradients with unprecedented sensitivity through superposition states with large separation, as well as probing the frontiers of physics in terms of quantum macroscopicity limits and tests of the Einstein equivalence principle.\\ Driven by these goals, the Hannover VLBAI facility offers a well-controlled environment for high-sensitivity atom interferometry on a 10 m baseline. Shot-noise limited short-term instabilities below $10^{-9}$ m/s$^2$ in 1 s are anticipated. However, this requires meticulous control and analysis of error sources, such as vibrations of the inertial reference mirror and gradients of the magnetic and gravitational field.\\ We present progress on the unique parts essential for the envisaged performance: a 10.5 m long dual-layer magnetic shield, a seismic attenuation system featuring active and passive damping as well as monitoring of residual motion, and two high-flux sources of ultracold rubidium and ytterbium. Additionally, concepts for understanding the gravitational environment as a systematic bias are shown. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 12:18PM - 12:30PM |
J02.00007: A compact guided-atom interferometer gyroscope with Earth-rate sensitivity Charles Sackett, Edward Moan, Zhe Luo, Seth Berl, Adam Fallon We describe the implementation of a Sagnac interferometer using atoms in a magnetic trap. A Bose-Einstein condensate is manipulated using Bragg laser beams to produce four wave packets constituting two simultaneous interferometers. Each packet moves along a near-circular orbit of radius 0.2 mm in a cylindrical harmonic trap with frequency 10 Hz. The interferometers close and exhibit a visibility of about 60\%. A variety of common-mode noise sources cause each individual interferometer output to fluctuate, but the differential phase is stable and depends on the platform rotation, with small corrections from residual asymmetries in the trap potential. We have characterized the gyroscopic performance by slowly rotating the floating optical table on which the apparatus rests, obtaining a sensitivity of about $10^{-5}$ rad/s with an effective enclosed area of 0.5 mm$^2$. We also characterize the residual phase from the trap, and find that it can be understood using a simple model. We will discuss potential applications and prospects for further improvements. [Preview Abstract] |
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