We eliminate lineshape asymmetry in weak atomic transitions driven by an intense standing-wave field. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.05884 We like our spectral line symmetric. Or at least, we would like to understand why it is not and correct for such unwanted effects when needed. This is exactly what we do here for the 408-nm transition in our Yb atomic beam. […]
How to look for axions better when shining lights through walls?
It may look crazy to an outside observer, but physicists nowadays shine a light on a wall and expect to see something behind it. We propose to modify such light-shining-through-walls experiments in a way that some of the light will be allowed to go beyond the wall, i.e. the wall is not completely opaque. Then, […]
High magnetic fields for fundamental physics – a review
How experiments use large magnetic fields (bigger than 30 Tesla) to search for new particles and fundamental physics in table-top experiments? Various experimental concepts and techniques are discussed, together with current and proposed experiments. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.07547 Caption: The proposed scaled down, fully functional initial-demonstration version of International Axion Observatory (IAXO). Source: http://iaxo.web.cern.ch/content/home-international-axion-observatory
Superconductor vortices imaged by NV ensembles in diamonds
We present a novel wide-field imaging technique to image vortices in type-II superconductors. We acquire the images using ensembles of NV centers in diamond. By using microfabricated diamond plates we reduce the superconductor-NV distance to less than one µm, which allowed us to study the stray magnetic field of vortices in a Type-II superconductor. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.01957 Caption: Vortices in a type-II superconductor, […]
Quanta magazine notes our research
https://www.quantamagazine.org/ultra-accurate-clocks-lead-search-for-new-laws-of-physics-20180416/
Low-energy tests of fundamental physics, a review
Why is it interesting and important to test fundamental laws and search for undiscovered particles using laboratory-based techniques? Such room-scale experiments are already spearheading discovery, and can be expected to become even more important as accelerators reach seemingly inevitable limits. A personal perspective of Dmitry Budker. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798717000795 Caption: Group meeting, where personal perspectives are often […]
Shooting a laser into the sky and picking up the light of excited sodium atoms
We demonstrate a method of remote magnetic field measurements in the mesosphere using a laser beam with intensity modulation at the Larmor frequency of sodium, achieving an accuracy of 0.28 mG/√ Hz. This is useful as a laser guide star bright enhancement method and as a remote sensing device for magnetic fields in the mesosphere. https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04686 Nature […]
GNOME adds BGU to its collaboration
GNOME collaboration expands! See report in Jerusalem Post.
Isotope shift, non-linearity of King plot and search for nuclear island of stability and new particles
In a joint work of Anna Viatkina, Victor Flambaum and Amy Geddes, a single-particle relativistic formula found to estimate the isotope shift (IS) in many-electron atoms. It is used to predict the behavior of IS in superheavy atoms. They further analyse different contributions to the non-linearity of King plot arising from Standard Model. Their estimates […]
A hypothetical effect of the Maxwell-Proca electromagnetic stresses on galaxy rotation curves
One of the results of the visit of Prof. Dmitri D. Ryutov to Mainz in the summer of 2017 is a paper (co-authored by Profs. D. Budker and V. V. Flambaum) on a possible influence of a finite mass of the photon on galactic rotation curves. The leading current explanation of the anomalous stellar velocities […]