Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 54: Quantum Optics in Space
Q 54.3: Talk
Thursday, March 14, 2024, 15:00–15:15, HS 3219
Quantum gas mixtures in an Earth-orbiting research laboratory — •Annie Pichery1,2, Timothé Estrampes1,2, Gabriel Müller1, Nicholas P. Bigelow3, Eric Charron2, Naceur Gaaloul1, and the CUAS Consortium3 — 1Leibniz Universität Hannover,Institut für Quantenoptik, Germany — 2Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay, France — 3University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is a multi-user Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) machine aboard the International Space Station, operated by NASA’s Jet Propultion Lab. Since its upgrade in 2020, it enables the production and manipulation of dual-species BEC mixtures of K and Rb. We report here about the first quantum mixture experiments realized in space [E. Elliott et al., Nature 623, 502 (2023)] and study its dynamics in weightlessness to prepare dual-species atom interferometry and future tests of the Universality of Free Fall.
Space provides, indeed, an environment where atom clouds can float for extended times of several seconds, as well as miscibility conditions different from ground. Simulating these quantum phases and the dynamics of interacting dual species presents however computational challenges due to the long expansion times. We present a novel theoretical framework based on re-scaled computation grids that allowed to follow the extended free dynamics of quantum mixtures in space.
We acknowledge financial support from the German Space Agency (DLR) with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) under Grant No. CAL-II 50WM2245A/B.
Keywords: Bose-Einstein condensate; quantum-degenerate mixtures; microgravity