Between the 6-10th of January 2020, I attended the first workshop on Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics in Durham, UK. It is part of a wider UK-based effort to use the recent advances in quantum technologies for use in fundamental physics.
The conference basically encapsulated some of the reasons for why I am interested in studying quantum sensing: The powerful enhancements that we can potentially achieve with quantum sensors are key to searches for new fundamental physics. This research is especially topical as the LCH reaches its designed energy, which means that we are faced with the choice of whether to build a new accelerator or not. Before we address this question, it makes sense to prospect for new discoveries in different areas – you never know where new insights may come from.
The sessions were extremely informative, with many fantastic speakers. To me, there were a number of highlights during the conference. Having not been exposed to much particle physics lately, I thoroughly enjoyed a comprehensive review of dark matter candidates presented by Jure Zupan at the University of Cincinnati. I also learned a lot about atomic clocks, there were a number of excellent talks on this topic, including by Michal Zawada and Marianna Safranova. Especially the conclusion that we are now moving away from atomic clocks to nuclear clocks, where the high-energy nuclear transitions promise even higher accuracy compared with what we have at present.
Me being interested in optomechanics and gravity detection, I especially enjoyed a presentation by Yuta Michimura on KAGRA; which is the Japanese gravitational wave detection initiative. There were also some very interested advances on levitating mirrors rather than nanospheres, with the advantage being that the mirror-systems can achieve even higher coupling constants than the mirrors.
All the talk slides can be found at the conference website. I look forwards to attending future conferences on this topic and want to thank the organisers for putting on such an enjoyable event.