Recent progress in observing and manipulating mechanical oscillators at quantum regime provides new opportunities of studying fundamental physics, for example to search for low energy signatures of ...quantum gravity. For example, it was recently proposed that such devices can be used to test quantum gravity effects, by detecting the change in the x^,p^ commutation relation that could result from quantum gravity corrections. We show that such a correction results in a dependence of a resonant frequency of a mechanical oscillator on its amplitude, which is known as the amplitude-frequency effect. By implementing this new method we measure the amplitude-frequency effect for a 0.3 kg ultra-high-Q sapphire split-bar mechanical resonator and for an ∼10−5 kg quartz bulk acoustic wave resonator. Our experiments with a sapphire resonator have established the upper limit on a quantum gravity correction constant of β0 to not exceed 5.2×106, which is a factor of 6 better than previously measured. The reasonable estimates of β0 from experiments with quartz resonators yields β0<4×104. The datasets of 1936 measurements of a physical pendulum period by Atkinson E. C. Atkinson, Proc. Phys. Soc. London 48, 606 (1936). could potentially lead to significantly stronger limitations on β0≪1. Yet, due to the lack of proper pendulum frequency stability measurement in these experiments the exact upper bound on β0 cannot be reliably established. Moreover, pendulum based systems only allow one to test a specific form of the modified commutator that depends on the mean value of momentum. The electromechanical oscillators to the contrary enable testing of any form of generalized uncertainty principle directly due to a much higher stability and a higher degree of control.
We report the results from a haloscope search for axion dark matter in the 3.3-4.2 μeV mass range. This search excludes the axion-photon coupling predicted by one of the benchmark models of ..."invisible" axion dark matter, the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov model. This sensitivity is achieved using a large-volume cavity, a superconducting magnet, an ultra low noise Josephson parametric amplifier, and sub-Kelvin temperatures. The validity of our detection procedure is ensured by injecting and detecting blind synthetic axion signals.
Resonant photon modes of a 5-mm-diameter yttrium iron garnet (YIG) sphere loaded in a cylindrical cavity in the 10-30-GHz frequency range are characterized as a function of applied dc magnetic field ...at millikelvin temperatures. The photon modes are confined mainly to the sphere and exhibited large mode filling factors in comparison to previous experiments, allowing ultrastrong coupling with the magnon spin-wave resonances. The largest observed coupling between photons and magnons is 2g/2pi=7.11 GHz for a 15.5-GHz mode, corresponding to a cooperativity of C=1.51+ or -0.47x10 super(7). Complex modifications, beyond a simple multioscillator model, of the photon mode frequencies were observed between 0 and 0.1 T. Between 0.4 and 1 T, degenerate resonant photon modes were observed to interact with magnon spin-wave resonances with different coupling strengths, indicating time-reversal symmetry breaking due to the gyrotropic permeability of YIG. Bare dielectric resonator mode frequencies were determined by detuning magnon modes to significantly higher frequencies with strong magnetic fields. By comparing measured mode frequencies at 7 T with finite element modeling, a bare dielectric permittivity of 15.96+ or -0.02 of the YIG crystal has been determined at about 20 mK.
Progress in realizing the SI second had multiple technological impacts and enabled further constraint of theoretical models in fundamental physics. Caesium microwave fountains, realizing best the ...second according to its current definition with a relative uncertainty of 2-4 × 10(-16), have already been overtaken by atomic clocks referenced to an optical transition, which are both more stable and more accurate. Here we present an important step in the direction of a possible new definition of the second. Our system of five clocks connects with an unprecedented consistency the optical and the microwave worlds. For the first time, two state-of-the-art strontium optical lattice clocks are proven to agree within their accuracy budget, with a total uncertainty of 1.5 × 10(-16). Their comparison with three independent caesium fountains shows a degree of accuracy now only limited by the best realizations of the microwave-defined second, at the level of 3.1 × 10(-16).
We present a detailed characterization of two atomic clock interrogation systems based on two different cryogenic sapphire oscillators operated simultaneously. We use them as references for two ...accurate fountain clock frequency standards participating in international atomic time and operating both at the quantum projection noise frequency limit. The two fountain comparison down to a few 10 -16 over 28 days demonstrates the potential of a cryocooled oscillator to replace a He-refilled cryogenic oscillator.
Searching for axion dark matter, the ADMX Collaboration acquired data from January to October 2018, over the mass range 2.81–3.31 μeV, corresponding to the frequency range 680–790 MHz. Using an ...axion haloscope consisting of a microwave cavity in a strong magnetic field, the ADMX experiment excluded Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnisky (DFSZ) axions at 90% confidence level and 100% dark matter density over this entire frequency range, except for a few gaps due to mode crossings. This paper explains the full ADMX analysis for run 1B, motivating analysis choices informed by details specific to this run.
The Casimir force was predicted in 1948 as a force arising between macroscopic bodies from the zero-point energy. At finite temperatures, it has been shown that a thermal Casimir force exists due to ...thermal rather than zero-point energy and there are a growing number of experiments that characterize the effect at a range of temperatures and distances. In addition, in the rapidly evolving field of cavity optomechanics, there is an endeavour to manipulate phonons and enhance coherence. We demonstrate a way to realize a Casimir spring and engineer dilution in macroscopic optomechanics, by coupling a metallic SiN membrane to a photonic re-entrant cavity. The attraction of the spatially localized Casimir spring mimics a non-contacting boundary condition, giving rise to increased strain and acoustic coherence through dissipation dilution. This provides a way to manipulate phonons via thermal photons leading to ‘in situ’ reconfigurable mechanical states, to reduce loss mechanisms and to create additional types of acoustic nonlinearity—all at room temperature.An optomechanical cavity comprising a re-entrant cavity and membrane resonators can be tuned in and out of the Casimir regime. At the transition between the two regimes, the mechanical resonators exhibit a change in stiffness—the Casimir spring.
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