From CP to PNC, or: darn small and pretty unlikely!
Dr. Maarten DeKieviet (Universität Heidelberg)

The Heidelberger Atomic Beam Spin Echo spectrometer is an atomic interferometer, designed for studying surface quantum dynamics with unprecedented resolution (sub neV). Recently, we succeeded in measuring quantum reflection of thermal He(3)-atoms far from threshold. From this reflectivity we are able to deduce the exact shape and value of the Casimir-Polder (CP) contribution to the atom-surface interaction potential. Current experiments on some very fundamental questions concerning this QED phenomenum, like its topology and temperature dependency, will be presented. In the near future we will extend our Atomic Beam Spin Echo technique to search for atomic parity violating (PNC) effects.