Preparing for the Thorium-229 revolution – Colloquium by Prof. Gilad Perez, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Colloquium by Prof. Gilad Perez, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Preparing for the Thorium-229 revolution

Abstract: The remarkable precision of optical atomic clocks enables new applications and offers sensitivity to novel and exotic physics. In this talk I will explain the motivation and operating principles of a multiplexed strontium optical lattice clock, which consists of two or more atomic ensembles of trapped, ultra-cold strontium in one vacuum chamber. This miniature clock network enables us to bypass the primary limitations to typical atomic clock comparisons and achieve new levels of precision.
After a brief introduction related to ultralight (pseudo) scalar dark matter, we shall describe the current status of searches for ultralight dark matter (UDM). We explain why modern clocks can be used to search for both scalar and axion dark matter fields. We review existing and new types of well-motivated models of UDM and argue that they all share one key ingredient – their dominant coupling is to the QCD/nuclear sector. This is very exciting as we are amidst a revolution in the field of dark matter searches as laser excitation of Th-229 with effective precision of 1:10^{^13} has been recently achieved, which as we show, is already probing uncharted territory of models. Furthermore, Th-229-based nuclear clock can potentially improve the sensitivity to physics of dark matter and beyond by factor of 10^{^10}. To what extent we trust this enhancement factor and what are the potential implications will be also briefly discussed.

Access data for the transfer:
Zoom Access: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/932734874

This talk is part of the “Virtual Seminar on Precision Physics and Fundamental Symmetries” series and of the SFB DQ-mat colloquium series:
https://indico.cern.ch/category/12183/

PTB Braunschweig,Vieweg Building, Room 133