Hannover 2013 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 35: Poster I

Q 35.77: Poster

Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 16:00–18:30, Empore Lichthof

Towards a test of the Universality of Free Fall of atoms in microgravity — •Christian Vogt, Sascha Kulas, Andreas Resch, and Sven Herrmann — ZARM, Universität Bremen, Am Fallturm, 28259 Bremen

Matter wave interferometry today is an established tool to perform precision measurements in fundamental physics. One of the main limiting factors in such experiments is the finite free evolution time available to matter waves in a laboratory setup. Thus, the extended free fall time which can be achieved in a microgravity environment is expected to be of great benefit to future matter wave precision measurements. First promising results towards this have been achieved by the QUANTUS collaboration in recent years [1]. Within the PRIMUS project (Präzisions-Interferometrie unter Schwerelosigkeit) we aim to further explore this potential in a dedicated drop tower experiment. Therefore, we are currently setting up a dual species interferometer to compare the free fall of 87Rb and 39K atoms. Here, we present the current status of this experiment and discuss the perspectives and attainable sensitivity of such a free fall test in the Bremen Drop Tower. The PRIMUS project is supported by the German Space Agency DLR with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under grant number DLR 50 WM 1142.

[1] T. van Zoest et al., "Bose-Einstein condensation in microgravity", Science, vol 328, no. 5985, p. 1540, 2010