AION will use #ColdAtoms to create a detector for #DarkMatter, #GravitationalWaves and tests of fundamental physics. We're combining researcher communities from atomic, high energy and astroparticle physics.
Check out our paper doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/20โฆ or find out more below ๐งต
AION team members (past and present!) from almost all our cold atom labs have had a great time at @icap2024 this week!
ALT A group of people stand around a sign reading 'Welcome to ICAP 2024' in the entrance foyer of a university building with staircases crossing behind them. Most of them look happy to be there!
There's too much going on in our research teams to cover in our consortium meeting discussion sessions - so for the first time we've had a poster session for our students and postdocs to showcase their projects!
Congratulations to poster prize winner Ollie from @unibirmingham!
ALT Poster boards have been set up in a large common room, and people are walking around looking at the posters and talking.
ALT Poster prize winner Ollie stands at the front of a lecture theatre shaking hands with consortium leader Oliver!
Last week we met up in Birmingham for our most recent consortium meeting! We had an interesting three days discussing experiment updates, and sharing ideas and future plans.
Thanks to all who joined, especially our guest speakers and the organisers from the @unibirmingham team!
ALT A group of about 30 people stand outside, with the Birmingham University clock tower behind them. The clock tower is tall and narrow and made of red brick. There are trees and bushes behind the group, and the sky is blue with white fluffy clouds. Most in the group are dressed for the warm day!
Last month the international long baseline #AtomInterferometry community came together for a fantastic workshop discussing recent progress and technical challenges.
Take a look at the posters that some of our students and postdocs presented on their work! ๐งต
From @LivUni@livuniphysics Leonie Hawkins presented her PhD work on atom interferometry with Rubidium-85, and Kamran Hussain (joint with @RAL_Space_STFC) showed progress towards interferometry with ultrcold strontium, including laser stabilissation and precision optics.
ALT Leonie stands next to her poster, 'Rb-85 interferometry at the University of Liverpool'
ALT Kamran stands next to his poster on progress towards strontium atom interferometry at RAL Space.
Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of John Carlton's excellent poster on the characterisation of gravity gradient noise and its impact on atom interferometry!
We're looking forward to the terrestrial very-long baseline atom interferometry workshop coming up in London, 3-5 April! It will be great to discuss science and plans with the entire community.
Registration closes 20th March (13th March for posters)
indico.cern.ch/event/1369392โฆ
Our experimental teams recently enjoyed a training week learning how to use our ARTIQ experiment control systems, sharing ideas online as they tackled the exercises throughout the days.
Thanks to Charles Baynham @ImperialPhysics for organising! @M_Labs_Ltd
ALT Two women are sitting at a desk looking at an oscilliscope screen which is displaying a sine wave. A laptop is open in front of them and the oscilloscope is connected up to a crate with various wires and lights. They look very happy with their results!
ALT A man is standing in front of an electronics rack holding a screwdriver and looking as though he's about to make some changes to a board. There are lots of wires heading in all directions.
ALT Some people are sitting at a long wooden desk in a laboratory, all looking intently at computer screens showing the code they're writing to control the experiment.
ALT A man is sitting studying some red error messages that have appeared on his laptop screen.
Edit: learning how to use our experiment control systems in the most effective way!
Our labs have been using ARTIQ for a while but one of our goals is to have a streamlined approach to experiment control where we can easily share sequences between labs!
3โฃ "Charting New Frontiers in Dark Matter Detection with Atom Interferometry", supervised by @C_McCabe1@KingsEPAP and Mark Bason @RAL_Space_STFC ๐ฅณ
You'd join the @AION_Science collaboration as they develop an ultra-sensitive atom interferometer to search for #DarkMatter. ๐
ALT Infographic: Ben Gilliland, STFC
Title: AION, Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network
We recently had our latest consortium meeting, this time hosted by our @RAL_Space_STFC team at the beautiful Cosener's House in Abingdon. We enjoyed three days of technical discussions and updates on everyone's progress!
ALT Photograph of a group of people standing arranged on steps in front of a large red brick house, framed on either side with autumnal trees. The leaves on the trees are yellow, and there are red and yellow patches in the low bushes in front of the group. The tiny patch of sky visible is bright blue and some of the people are managing not to wear coats.
โ๏ธ On 13 November, @rutherfordaplab is hosting researchers from light and atom interferometry communities to discuss noise sources relevant to the detection of fundamental physics processes, such as gravitational waves.
More info and registration here ๐ indico.stfc.ac.uk/event/910/โฆ
ALT Gravitational waves: noise sources and mitigation strategies
13 November 2023, 08:30 - 17:30
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
โ๏ธ On 13 November, @rutherfordaplab is hosting researchers from light and atom interferometry communities to discuss noise sources relevant to the detection of fundamental physics processes, such as gravitational waves.
More info and registration here ๐ indico.stfc.ac.uk/event/910/โฆ
ALT Gravitational waves: noise sources and mitigation strategies
13 November 2023, 08:30 - 17:30
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
What does a day in the life of a PhD student at #Cambridge look like? Get an insider look with Michael Hsu Chung Chuan, Cavendish PhD student in Atomic Mesoscopic and Optical Physics! ๐
@Cambridge_Uni@CaMBQD#Physics#Research
โ๏ธ Calling all #ColdAtoms physicists and #QuantumOptics experts!
Our #QuantumSensors group have exciting opportunities for scientists to join their team, which is expanding to further develop space applications of #quantum technologies. It's an exciting time to get involved! ๐
ALT Tristan (our Quantum Sensors Group leader) working in the lab at RAL Space