Decoherence from Long-Range Forces in Atom Interferometry

Understand

Atom interferometers provide a powerful means of realizing quantum coherent systems with increasingly macroscopic extent in space and time.

• These systems provide an opportunity for a variety of novel tests of fundamental physics, including ultralight dark matter searches and tests of modifications of gravity, using long drop times, microgravity.
• However, as experiments operate with longer periods of free fall and become sensitive to smaller background effects, key questions start to emerge about the fundamental limits to future atom interferometery experiments.
• We study the effects on atomic coherence from hard-to-screen backgrounds due to baths of ambient particles with long-range forces, such as gravitating baths and charged cosmic rays.