Condensed Matter Seminar: Probing fundamental physics with bosons and fermions

Atoms have proven to be a powerful tool for probing fundamental physics, from testing the limits of quantum mechanics, to putting bounds on dark energy theories.

In my talk, I will first present our efforts towards observing Pauli blocking of light scattering in a gas of ultracold degenerate fermions. Such a measurement requires achieving a record density of a trapped ultracold Fermi gas, which we have recently demonstrated. These densities have allowed us to observe significant p-wave interactions of the spin-polarized fermions.

In the second part, I will discuss the Stern-Gerlach interferometer, which we used to perform clock interferometry - a proposed tool to test the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Finally, I will discuss proposals for extending the use of the Stern-Gerlach interferometer into the nano-particle regime, as a platform for exotic experiments such as detecting gravitational waves or testing the quantum nature of gravity.