Seminar über Quanten-, Atom- und Neutronenphysik (QUANTUM)

April 23, 2020 at 2 p.m. c.t. only via Zoom Meeting ID: 236 122 4872

Prof. Dr. Peter van Loock
Institut für Physik
loock@uni-mainz.de

Dr. Lars von der Wense
Institut für Physik
lars.vonderwense@uni-mainz.de

Gravity tests at short distances using ultracold neutrons: A review of the qBounce experiment
Dr. Tobias Jenke (ILL Grenoble)


Neutrons are excellent probes to test gravity at short distances – electrically neutral and only hardly polarizable.
Very slow, so-called ultracold neutrons form bound quantum states in the gravity potential of the Earth.
This allows combining gravity experiments at short distances with powerful resonance spectroscopy techniques,
as well as tests of the interplay between gravity and quantum mechanics.
In the last decade, the qBounce collaboration has been performing several measurement campaigns at the ultracold and very cold neutron facility PF2
at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble/France. A new spectroscopy technique, Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy, was developed and realized,
and snapshots of falling wavepackets of these gravitationally bound quantum states were recorded.
The results were applied to test gravity at micron distances as well as various Dark Energy and Dark Matter scenarios in the lab,
like Axions, Chameleons and Symmetrons.
In my talk, I will review the experiments, explain key technologies and summarize the results obtained.