Precision Measurements with a Condensite Interferometer

在过去的十年里，我们操纵原子的能力有了质的飞跃，原子是物质的基本组成部分。 玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚和相关技术的发现使科学家能够以前所未有的精度控制原子的完整状态。 这一进展的全部意义仍在探索中，但一个即将开发的应用是使用玻色凝聚体进行高精度测量。 以前用非凝聚原子进行的各种测量将得到实质性的改进，并且以前不切实际的几种新的测量已经成为可能。 本项目就致力于这方面的工作，特别侧重于原子的电极化率的测量。 极化率是一个基本的原子值，它描述了原子在从光散射到化学反应再到原子钟的各种情况下的行为。 这项工作有望将极化率的准确性提高100倍，这一结果将在许多科学应用中非常有用。 更广泛地说，这项工作将为各种其他测量方法的改进开辟道路，包括重力，加速度，旋转，原子相互作用和各种电磁场。 其中许多应用具有技术和社会重要性，例如石油勘探的重力探测或导航的惯性测量。 深刻的科学发展几乎总是带来重大的社会效益，例如微波和激光技术的普及就是证明。 预计在这里进行的工作将有助于开发玻色凝聚物理的类似工具。 与此同时，这项工作为下一代科学家提供了关于这些尖端思想和技术的良好培训。 参与的研究生将为学术或工业研究的职业生涯做好充分的准备，或者引导思想从一个领域到另一个领域的交叉。

The past decade has seen a literal quantum leap in our ability to manipulate atoms, the basic building blocks of matter. The discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation and related techniques has allowed scientists to control the complete state of an atom with unprecedented precision. The full implications of this advance are still being uncovered, but one application that is poised for development is the use of Bose condensates for high-accuracy measurements. A variety of measurements that have previously been performed with non-condensed atoms will see substantial improvements, and several novel measurements that were previously impractical have become possible. This project pursues such avenues, with a particular focus on the measurement of the electrical polarizability of atoms. The polarizability is an essential atomic value that describes how an atom behaves in situations ranging from light scattering to chemical reactions to atomic clocks. This work is expected to improve the accuracy of the polarizability by a hundred-fold over the current knowledge, a result that will be useful in many scientific applications. More broadly, the work will lead the way to improved techniques for a variety of other measurements, including that of gravity, acceleration, rotation, atomic interactions, and electromagnetic fields of various kinds. Many of these applications have technological and social importance, such as gravity detection for oil prospecting or inertial measurements for navigation. Profound scientific developments have nearly always resulted in significant societal benefits, as evidenced by the ubiquity of, for example, microwave and laser technology. It is anticipated that the work performed here will help develop analogous utilities for Bose condensate physics. At the same time, the work provides excellent training for the next generation of scientists on these cutting-edge ideas and techniques. Participating graduate students will become well prepared for careers in academic or industrial research, or perhaps to guide the cross-over of ideas from one area to the other.