Measurement of the Casimir-Polder force through center-of-mass oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate

By Dave Harber, J. Obrecht, J. M. Mcguirk, E. A. Cornell. 2005

184 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have performed a measurement of the Casimir-Polder force using a magnetically trapped {sup 87}Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. By detecting perturbations of the frequency of center-of-mass oscillations of the condensate perpendicular to the surface, we are able to detect this force at a distance {approx}5 {mu}m, significantly farther than has been previously achieved, and at a precision approaching that needed to detect the modification due to thermal radiation. Additionally, this technique provides a limit for the presence of non-Newtonian gravity forces in the {approx}1 {mu}m range.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/769bee9f744d063090c170c53324aa9e59122d27

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Citations in the corpus

Atom Interferometers (2007, background): “, 1998), and atoms trapped near surfaces (Harber et al., 2005; Lin et al., 2004; McGuirk et al., 2004) and atoms in interferometers (Brezger et al.”
Observation of quantum-measurement backaction with an ultracold atomic gas (2007, methodology): “, and the oscillatory motion of an atomic gas has been used to measure weak force”
Ion-trap measurements of electric-field noise near surfaces (2014, background): “…physics and represent, for example, an experimental limitation for precision measurements of the Casimir-Polder force between closely spaced metallic plates (Sandoghdar et al., 1992; Harber et al., 2005) or gravity tests with charged elementary particles (Camp et al., 1991; Darling et al., 1992).”
Probing dark energy with atom interferometry (2014, background): “We find that line d marks the region excluded by measurements of the oscillation frequency of a rubidium BEC trapped 6–9μm from a surface, which confirm the Casimir-Polder force gradient [30].”
The Casimir force between real materials: Experiment and theory (2009, methodology): “This frequency shift can be measured precisely, leading to an indirect measurement of the Casimir-Polder force (Harber et al., 2005).”