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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 14: Experimente zur Gravitation I

GR 14.2: Talk

Thursday, March 12, 2009, 17:45–18:05, A214

Giant Matter Waves In Microgravity — •Thorben Könemann — ZARM, University of Bremen, Germany

We report on the first experimental demonstration of rubidium Bose-Einstein condensates in the environment of weightlessness at the earth-bound short-term microgravity laboratory Drop Tower Bremen, a facility of ZARM ("Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity") - University of Bremen. This pilot project is performed within the QUANTUS (''Quantum Systems in Weightlessness'') collaboration to study the possibilities of Bose-Einstein condensation experiments in free fall on earth and the feasibility of ultracold quantum matter techniques on space-based platforms. Our approach is based on a compact, mobile, robust and autonomous operating drop capsule experiment to currently investigate Bose-Einstein condensates with longest expansion times (up to 1 second). For this purpose the drop capsule setup has to withstand decelerations of around 50g on every free fall. So far, we have successfully accomplished more than 170 drops with the QUANTUS apparatus since the beginning of November 2007. The pilot project QUANTUS gratefully acknowledges the support from the DLR (''German Aerospace Center'') an institution of the BMWi (''Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany'') under the support code 50 WM 0836.