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Floating atoms to measure gravity

25.11.2019

A group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley has found a new way to measure the forces of gravity and the effects associated with these forces. The basis of this method is to measure the smallest differences between atoms in a state of quantum superposition, which are held in a "floating" state by laser light inside a vacuum chamber. The Berkeley researchers believe that this new method, in some cases, will be more convenient and useful than the traditional methods of making such measurements that are currently used.

The current standard way of measuring gravity and conducting experiments with the earth's gravity is to drop various objects from a certain height. At the same time, objects are dropped inside vertical pipes, inside which a vacuum of great depth is created and which are at the same time a screen that blocks the influence of a number of external factors on highly sensitive measuring equipment.

Unfortunately, such methods give scientists the opportunity to observe the effects of gravitational forces for only a fairly short time, in addition, the results of such experiments are often distorted by the unintentional influence of external magnetic and electric fields. The new method allows gravity to be measured in a way that does not use any falling or moving objects at all.

To measure gravity with the new method, a cloud of cesium atoms is sprayed inside a small vacuum chamber. After that, with the help of flashes of laser light, these atoms are placed in a state of quantum superposition, separated into pairs that occupy fixed positions in space. Moreover, everything is organized in such a way that one atom of the pair is always higher than the second atom.

The measured value in this method is the value that numerically reflects the wave component of each atom, which, being a quantum particle, has the property of quantum-wave dualism, being both a particle and a wave at the same time. Differences in the measured values of particles located at different distances from the Earth, and allows you to calculate the value of gravity with a fairly high accuracy.

Note that the new method of gravity measurement has a number of significant advantages. With its help, you can carry out measurements for an arbitrarily long time, thereby raising the accuracy of the values obtained. In addition, the same method can be used not only to measure the forces of terrestrial gravity, but also the forces of gravitational interactions between two particles, such as the cesium atoms used in the experiment.

Due to the small size of the vacuum chamber, this chamber is much easier to shield and protect from all possible undesirable external influences. Thanks to this, in the future it will be possible to create a sufficiently portable device that can be used to measure gravity at various points on the earth's surface and make similar measurements from low earth orbit.

A new method of measuring gravity could be an extremely useful tool for scientists working on the problem of dark matter and energy, and allowing to test other fundamental physical things, such as the principle of equivalence.

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