Cold Atom Laboratory Doing Cool Analysis

The Cold Atom Laboratory will forge “fluffy molecules” and probe the wonders of quantum physics when it launches to the International Space Station subsequent 12 months.

On a sun-drenched hill in Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains, researchers are making progress on an experimental facility that would create the coldest identified place within the universe.

The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, will probe the wonders of quantum physics when it launches to the International Space Station. The CAL facility not too long ago hit a milestone of creating an ultra-cold quantum fuel with potassium, a high-tech feat that places it on observe for launch subsequent 12 months. The deliberate flight to area is in August 2017.

“Studying gases that have been cooled down to extreme temperatures is key to understanding how complexity arises in the universe, and allows us to test the fundamental laws of physics in a whole new way,” stated Robert Thompson, undertaking scientist for the Cold Atom Laboratory at JPL.

Researchers with CAL are keen on a state of matter referred to as a Bose-Einstein condensate, which occurs when all of the atoms in a really chilly fuel have the identical vitality ranges. Like dancers in a refrain line, the atoms turn out to be synchronized and behave like one steady wave as an alternative of discrete particles.

On Earth, gravity limits how lengthy scientists can examine Bose-Einstein condensates as a result of this type of matter falls to the underside of any equipment used to review it. In microgravity, such condensates will be noticed for longer intervals of time. This would enable scientists to raised perceive the properties of particles on this state and their makes use of for checks of basic physics. Ultra-cold atoms in microgravity can also be key to all kinds of superior quantum sensors, and exquisitely delicate measurements of portions corresponding to gravity, rotations and magnetic fields.

Using lasers, magnetic traps and an electromagnetic “knife” to take away heat particles, CAL will take atoms right down to the coldest temperatures ever achieved.

In February, the crew created their first ultra-cold quantum fuel comprised of two elemental species: rubidium and potassium. Previously, in 2014, CAL researchers made Bose-Einstein condensates utilizing rubidium, and have been capable of reliably create them in a matter of seconds. This time, the cooled rubidium was used to deliver potassium-39 right down to ultra-cold temperatures.

“This marks an important step for the project, as we needed to verify that the instrument could create this two-species ultra-cold gas on Earth before doing so in space,” stated Anita Sengupta, the undertaking supervisor for CAL, based mostly at JPL.

“We were able to cool the gases down to about a millionth of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero, the point at which atoms would be close to motionless,” stated JPL’s David Aveline, the CAL testbed lead.

That sounds inconceivably chilly to mere mortals, however such temperatures are like tropical seashore afternoons in comparison with the last word purpose of CAL. Researchers hope to chill atoms right down to a billionth of a level above absolute zero when the experimental facility will get to area.

One space of science to which CAL will contribute is known as Efimov physics, which makes fascinating predictions in regards to the ways in which a small variety of particles work together. Isaac Newton had basic insights into how two our bodies work together — for instance, Earth and the moon — however the guidelines that govern them are extra sophisticated when a 3rd physique, such because the solar, is launched. The interactions turn out to be much more complicated in a system of three atoms, which behave in keeping with the odd legal guidelines of quantum mechanics.

Under the correct situations, ultra-cold gases that CAL produces include molecules with three atoms every, however are a thousand occasions larger than a typical molecule. This leads to a low-density, “fluffy” molecule that rapidly falls aside until it’s saved extraordinarily chilly.

“The way atoms behave in this state gets very complex, surprising and counterintuitive, and that’s why we’re doing this,” stated Eric Cornell, a physicist on the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, each in Boulder, and member of the CAL science crew. Cornell shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for creating Bose-Einstein condensates.

At a current assembly at JPL, researchers related to the mission gathered to debate ongoing developments and their scientific objectives, which vary from darkish matter detection to atom lasers. They included Cornell, who, together with co-investigator Peter Engels of Washington State University, is main one of many CAL experiments. “CAL science investigators could open new doors into the quantum world and will demonstrate new technologies for future NASA missions,” stated CAL Deputy Project Manager Kamal Oudrhiri at JPL.

“CAL’s investigation will generate scientific data that could rewrite textbooks for generations,” stated Mark Lee, senior program scientist for basic physics at NASA Headquarters.

For extra details about the Cold Atom Laboratory go to:

Elizabeth Landau
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
[email protected]

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