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SUMMARY:Detecting Dark Energy with Atom Interferometry - Claire Burrage
DTSTART:20150506T131500Z
DTEND:20150506T141500Z
UID:TALK57970@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mahdi Godazgar
DESCRIPTION:I will discuss the possibility that the nature of the dark ene
 rgy driving the observed acceleration of the Universe on giga-parsec scale
 s may be determined first through metre scale laboratory based atom interf
 erometry experiments. I will begin by introducing the scalar fields that c
 ould be responsible for dark energy and show that in order to be compatibl
 e with fifth force constraints these fields must have a screening mechanis
 m to hide their effects from us. Focusing in particular on one such screen
 ing mechanism\, known as the chameleon effect\, where the field's mass bec
 omes dependent on the  environment. I will show that atom-interferometry e
 xperiments are ideally suited to detect the acceleration due to the fifth 
 force of the chameleon field - this will then allow us to either rule out 
 large regions of the chameleon parameter space or maybe one day to detect 
 the force due to the dark energy field in the laboratory.
LOCATION:MR2\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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