Quantum sensing techniques in astro-particle searches

Tuesday 13 Oct 2026, 15:30 → 18:30 Europe/Zurich

Alberto Marino (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Yevgeny Stadnik (The University of Sydney), Andrew Geraci, Chelsea Bartram (SLAC), Dalziel Wilson, Swati Singh, William Terrano (Arizona State University)

This DRD5 WP5 online workshop will focus on experimental methods in astro-particle searches, including the application of quantum-sensing approaches and the use of networks and arrays of sensors.  We aim to encourage cross-disciplinary discussions and highlight novel opportunities in this multi-faceted and dynamic field.

THE MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE VIA ZOOM.

15:30 → 16:00 TBD

Speaker: Francisco Prada

16:00 → 16:30 TBD

Speaker: Mikhail Lukin (Harvard University)

16:30 → 17:00 The Hannover Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometer: fundamental physics cases

Almost one century past the first observation of electrons undergoing Bragg diffraction on an Ni target brought upon countless technological breakthroughs, rendering laser-cooled and even ultracold atoms a resource readily available today. We will report on atom interferometry as a platform for quantum inertial sensing with emphasis on precision measurements of acceleration and gravity and present the Very Long Baseline Atom Interferometry (VLBAI) facility. It enables ground-based atomic matter-wave interferometry on large scales in space and time with shot noise-limited instabilities better than $10^{-9}\,$m/s$^2$ at $1\,$s at the horizon. Operated with rubidium and ytterbium simultaneously, tests of the universality of free fall at a level of parts in $10^{13}$ and beyond are in reach. Finally, the large spatial extent of the interferometer allows one to probe the limits of coherence at macroscopic scales as well as the interplay of quantum mechanics and gravity and serves as a pathfinder towards large-scale facilities such as AICE @CERN [1].

[1] arXiv:2608.18743 [hep-ex]

Speaker: Dennis Schlippert

17:00 → 17:30 Talk #4

17:30 → 18:00 TBD

Speaker: Nancy Aggarwal (UC Davis)

18:00 → 18:30 Discussions