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FRI: Friday Contributed Sessions

FRI 8: Quantum Detectors in Optics and Particle Physics

FRI 8.2: Talk

Friday, September 12, 2025, 11:00–11:15, ZHG009

Dynamics of quantum mixtures in microgravity — •Lakshmi Priyanka Guggilam, Jonas Böhm, and Dorthe Leopoldt — Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover

The MAIUS (Matter wave interferometry under microgravity) project aims to demonstrate atom interferometry in weightlessness as a promising tool for precision measurements, e.g., of Einstein*s equivalence principle (EEP), with accuracies that couldn*t be achieved with classical tests. With the launch of MAIUS-1, it was possible to create the first BECs in space using Rb-87 atoms and performing interference experiments with these macroscopic quantum objects. In MAIUS-2, we focus on understanding the dynamics of K-41 and Rb-87 quantum mixtures in microgravity to pave the wave for long-time dual species atom interferometry. This talk is focused on the preparation of K-41 and Rb-87 quantum mixtures in the Einstein Elevator, an active drop tower providing 4 s of microgravity time every 4 minutes. In addition, the simultaneous transport of both species to weaker traps using Shortcut To Adiabaticity (STA) protocols and their resulting dynamics will be discussed. These techniques are important prerequisites to perform EEP tests with BECs created on an atom chip under microgravity. The MAIUS project is supported by the German Space Agency DLR with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under grant number: 50WP1431.

Keywords: Bose Einstein Condensate; Laser cooling; Quantum Sensing; microgravity