11:00 am–5:00 pm ERC 161
Title: Nuclear quantum optics
Abstract: Quantum measurement techniques are now becoming routine in searches for gravitational waves, dark matter, and a variety of other contexts. Their use in nuclear physics is more nascent. I will present a new experimental effort we are pursuing at Berkeley, joint with Dave Moore's group at Yale, leveraging quantum optomechanical systems to study nuclear decays. The key applications are searches for heavy sterile neutrinos, tests of the angular dependence of the beta decay spectrum, and as a roadmap toward a measurement of the light neutrino mass scale. The system, QuIPS (Quantum Invisible Particle Sensor), consists of optically levitated 100nm-scale silica beads doped with beta emitting isotopes. Coupled with a calorimeter we have built, designed to measure ejected beta electrons in the 100 keV-few MeV range, this system is already capable of detecting individual alpha decays and will soon be used to image individual beta decays as a search for heavy sterile neutrinos in the 100's of keV mass range.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/93802578500?pwd=NWNKLhJbCVfJkaam4yWCgRZXcntdhA.1
