Physicists from the University of Liverpool have made a huge step forwards towards building a novel experiment to probe the "dark contents" of the vacuum. What we see, normal matter and light, only accounts for a about 5% of the universe. Understanding the remaining 95% (the dark content) remains of the greatest challenges for fundamental physics in the 21st Century.
A novel experiment to probe the dark universe was co-initiated by Dr Jon Coleman, a Royal Society Research Fellow in the University's Department of Physics, together with Nobel Laureate Martin Perl (a visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool from 2011, until his passing in 2014). The unique experiment relies on "quantum interferometry" using ultra cold atoms. This is based on one of the most challenging modern experimental techniques of cold atoms (itself awarded a Nobel prize in 1997), called atom interferometry.
In a paper released to ArXiv, the research group present their results demonstrating interference, using low cost equipment and sophisticated control systems which are a synthesis of their work at Stanford, electronics expertise from the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan, and motivated by a vision for a new way to probe the universe.
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