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Colloquium | Physical Sciences and Engineering

Quantum-Enabled Tests of Fundamental Symmetries in Nuclear and Particle Physics

PSE Colloquium

Abstract: Atomic clocks were arguably the first quantum sensors”: They rely explicitly on manipulation and readout of coherent quantum superposition states to sense the flow of time. Closely related methods underlie the operation of quantum bits and also are used for certain extremely sensitive measurements that probe interesting phenomena in nuclear and particle physics. I will describe several ongoing experiments of this type in my group. For example, we are searching for new CP-violating electron-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon interactions, with sensitivity sufficient to detect interactions arising from physics at the TeVscale — and above. Finally, I will describe exciting new opportunities in this field enabled by new rare-isotope beam facilities, and by the use of highly entangled quantum states.