Quantum Gas Mixtures and Dual-Species Atom Interferometry in Space
arXiv:2306.15223 · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06645-w
Abstract
The capability to reach ultracold atomic temperatures in compact instruments has recently been extended into space. Ultracold temperatures amplify quantum effects, while free-fall allows further cooling and longer interactions time with gravity - the final force without a quantum description. On Earth, these devices have produced macroscopic quantum phenomena such as Bose-Einstein condensation (BECs), superfluidity, and strongly interacting quantum gases. Quantum sensors interfering the superposition of two ultracold atomic isotopes have tested the Universality of Free Fall (UFF), a core tenet of Einstein's classical gravitational theory, at the level. In space, cooling the elements needed to explore the rich physics of strong interactions and preparing the multiple species required for quantum tests of the UFF has remained elusive. Here, utilizing upgraded capabilities of the multi-user Cold Atom Lab (CAL) instrument within the International Space Station (ISS), we report the first simultaneous production of a dual species Bose-Einstein condensate in space (formed from Rb and K), observation of interspecies interactions, as well as the production of K ultracold gases. We have further achieved the first space-borne demonstration of simultaneous atom interferometry with two atomic species (Rb and K). These results are an important step towards quantum tests of UFF in space, and will allow scientists to investigate aspects of few-body physics, quantum chemistry, and fundamental physics in novel regimes without the perturbing asymmetry of gravity.
References in corpus (35)
- Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
- Search for New Physics with Atoms and Molecules
- Universality in Few-body Systems with Large Scattering Length
- A two atomic species superfluid
- Space-borne Bose-Einstein condensation for precision interferometry
- Atom-interferometric test of the equivalence principle at the level
- Observation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances in a Bose-Fermi Mixture
- 39-K Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interactions
- MICROSCOPE mission: final results of the test of the Equivalence Principle
- Matter wave lensing to picokelvin temperatures
- Dual Matter-Wave Inertial Sensors in Weightlessness
- Feshbach spectroscopy of a K-Rb atomic mixture
- The Bose-Einstein Condensate and Cold Atom Laboratory
- Collisional properties of ultracold K-Rb mixtures
- Observation of ultracold atomic bubbles in orbital microgravity
- Tunable dual-species Bose-Einstein condensates of K and Rb
- Ultracold atom interferometry in space
- Quantum Test of the Equivalence Principle and Space-Time aboard the International Space Station
- Precision Test of the Limits to Universality in Few-Body Physics
- Design of a dual species atom interferometer for space
- A space-based quantum gas laboratory at picokelvin energy scales
- Revealing buried information: Statistical processing techniques for ultracold gas image analysis
- KRb Feshbach Resonances: Modeling the interatomic potential
- Efficient Production of Large 39K Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Observation of Efimov Universality across a Non-Universal Feshbach Resonance in \textsuperscript{39}K
- Dual-species Bose-Einstein condensate of 41K and 87Rb in a hybrid trap
- Evaporative cooling in a radio-frequency trap
- Shell-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates realized with dual-species mixtures
- Analytic theory for Bragg atom interferometry based on the adiabatic theorem
- Dipole dynamics of an interacting bosonic mixture
- Enhanced association and dissociation of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules in a microgravity environment
- STE-QUEST -- Space Time Explorer and QUantum Equivalence principle Space Test: The 2022 medium-class mission concept
- Cold Atoms in Space: Community Workshop Summary and Proposed Road-Map
- Perspectives and Opportunities: A Molecular Toolkit for Fundamental Physics and Matter Wave Interferometry in Microgravity
- A Dual-Species Atom Interferometer Payload for Operation on Sounding Rockets
Cited by in corpus (13)
- Quantum mixtures of ultracold gases of neutral atoms
- Trapping of Single Atoms in Metasurface Optical Tweezer Arrays
- Robust double Bragg diffraction via detuning control
- Miscibility of Binary Bose-Einstein Condensates with -wave Interaction
- Micro-integrated crossed-beam optical dipole trap system with long-term alignment stability for mobile atomic quantum technologies
- Bayesian optimization for state engineering of quantum gases
- Quantum arrival times in free fall
- High-contrast double Bragg interferometry via detuning control
- Context-Dependent Time-Energy Uncertainty Relations from Projective Quantum Measurements
- NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory: Five Years of Quantum Science Operations in Space
- Interferometry of Atomic Matter Waves in the Cold Atom Lab onboard the International Space Station
- Lieb-Mattis states for robust entangled differential phase sensing
- Delta-Kick Collimation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Molecules