![]() ![]() Michael Romalis and co-workers from Princeton University, New Jersey, have perfected an atomic spin “gyroscope” that stands to greatly contribute to these searches. Numerous experiments are actively searching for such effects, though none have been observed so far. ![]() It turns out that a ubiquitous prediction of these theories is the existence of exotic fields that generate tiny torques on the spins of atoms. Why is gravity so much weaker than the other fundamental forces? What are dark matter and dark energy? And why is there vastly more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Physicists have proposed a wide variety of theories to solve these mysteries. ![]() The Romalis team measures the precession frequencies of the helium and xenon atoms via the precessing atoms’ effect on the spin precession of a third species, rubidium (green), which they detect with a laser. The field torques the spins on the atoms, causing them to precess at well-defined frequencies. Their device is called a comagnetometer because it uses two types of atoms-in this case, helium (orange) and xenon (blue)-to detect a field. APS/ Alan Stonebraker Figure 1: Romalis and colleagues have greatly enhanced the sensitivity of an atom-based magnetometer, which can be used not only to detect magnetic fields, but also to search for exotic fields predicted by certain theories. ![]()
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