Precision measurements in atoms for astrophysics and fundamental physics

天体物理学和基础物理学中原子的精确测量

• 批准号: 327490-2010
• 负责人: Holt, Richard
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Group
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=595250
• 关键词: Precision; measurements; atoms; astrophysics; fundamental

The study of the history of the formation of the elements in the Universe is a fundamental area of astrophysics that has undergone tremendous advances in the last ten years as a result of the availability of new high-resolution satellite-based and ground-based telescopes, new theoretical models, and the availability of high-quality atomic physics data produced by a small number of groups around the world, including ours. These data are also applied to the study of processes occurring in the unseen interiors of stars by measuring chemical abundances in the outer layers. In our laboratory we use a laser to make extremely precise and selective measurements of astrophysically important properties of atoms, including the wavelengths (colours) at which they absorb light, the rate at which the absorption occurs, and the small changes in these wavelengths produced by interactions between the nucleus and the electrons of the atom. We use a small accelerator to make the atoms travel at high speed in vacuum in order to achieve the highest precision without any effects from collisions, a technique applied to absorption-rate measurements only by our group.

对宇宙中元素形成历史的研究是天体物理学的一个基本领域，在过去十年中，由于新的高分辨率卫星和地面望远镜的可用性，新的理论模型的可用性，以及世界上少数小组（包括我们的小组）产生的高质量原子物理数据的可用性，该领域取得了巨大进展。通过测量恒星外层的化学丰度，这些数据也被应用于研究发生在看不见的恒星内部的过程。在我们的实验室里，我们使用激光对原子的天体物理重要特性进行极其精确和选择性的测量，包括它们吸收光的波长（颜色），吸收发生的速率，以及原子核和原子电子之间相互作用产生的这些波长的微小变化。我们使用一个小型加速器使原子在真空中高速运动，以达到最高的精度，而不受碰撞的影响，这项技术只被我们的小组应用于吸收率测量。