Experiments Using Long Coherence Times in Atoms

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Project experiments will utilize the interaction of laser light with atoms to explore the most fundamental issues in elementary particle and nuclear physics. One experiment will search with unprecedented sensitivity for a tiny separation between the centers of plus and minus charge of the mercury atom. The existence of such an 'electric dipole' would violate time-reversal and matter/anti-matter symmetries and would help explain the preponderance of matter over anti-matter in the Universe. Another experiment will measure the recoil of Ytterbium atoms when they absorb light, and thereby test the validity of basic quantum electrodynamics to better than a part per billion. Also, an experiment with a single barium atomic ion will probe the nature of the nuclear force by measuring the shape of an atomic nucleus more precisely than ever before.These experiments open up avenues to the wider community and also to practical applications. The notions of time reversal and anti-matter appeal to the general public. The mercury experiment that addresses these issues requires developing ultra-sensitive magnetometry that could be used in medicine. People are excited when they see a single trapped barium ion with the naked eye, or in a photograph, and then find out that this ion can be an accurate clock for navigation. Within physics these experiments touch a broad community: atomic, nuclear, high energy, and astrophysics. They attract many graduate and undergraduate students for the chance to work locally on small-scale experiments and explore fundamental issues normally studied only by large groups at high energy accelerators. These students gain experience in exquisite technology with atoms, lasers and electronics, and in turn help make advances in this technology that they take with them to their future careers.