Lighting a quantum path for clocks and fundamental physics

Speaker: Jun Ye (JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, University of Colorado Boulder)
Series: Cavendish Quantum Colloquium

Laser physics and quantum science have fueled revolutionary developments in atomic and fundamental physics. Precise quantum state engineering has brought tens of thousands of atoms to minute-long coherence, unveiling a new regime for measurement precision. Quantum entanglement is advancing the clock performance beyond the standard quantum limit. The combination of phase-stable laser, ultrafast optics, and precision metrology also provides new tools for nuclear physics, leading to the recent breakthrough of quantum-state-resolved laser spectroscopy of thorium-229 nuclear transition. The permeation of quantum metrology to all corners of physics sparks new ideas for testing fundamental laws of nature and searching for new physics.