News from P.I. workshop on experimental search for QG

[starkind]

News from Claus Lammerzahl, from Bremen, on success yesterday 6 Nov. 07 of production of BEC in microgravity in a drop tower experiment:

Yesterday the first BEC in free fall was produced by a team at Bremen University. A condensate of 10^4 to 10^5 atoms was created in a few milleseconds in a 110 meter drop tube with a free fall time of 4.7 seconds. The capsule is 18 cm in diameter, one or two meters in length. The team hopes to reduce the temperature from the current record of 500 fK (Ketterle) to as low as 1 fK.

 

[marcus]

People are still imitating Galileo and dropping stuff off of towers

I should think dropping a tin can down the elevator shaft would probably be a lot cheaper than sending a rocket into orbit.

If I remember, Claus Laemmerzahl was one of the people at the Quantum Gravity Experiments workshop. Thanks for the news!

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Yes. Here is the summary of his talk:
==quote==
Laemmerzahl, Claus
Possible strategies for the search for quantum gravity induced effects

The search for QG effects has many aspects:

1.
QG effects should violate the Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) or fundamentals of Quantum Theory.
2.
QG effects are assumed to be very tiny.
3.
Need for an appropriate experimental strategy.
4.
Which effects are violations of EEP and other fundamental principles?
5.
Which effects are QG effects?

Accordingly, a first approach for the search of QG effects is to search for violations of the EEP. We will describe in a systematic approach given by the structure of the EEP the huge variety of experiments which are needed to test the EEP and report on the present status of these experiments. When available predictions from quantum gravity inspired scenarios will be presented, too. We also describe experiments in the quantum domain. After the main experimental part we also make short remarks on the strategies of a search for quantum gravity effects, on the magnitude of the expected effects, and on criteria of what can be regarded as a quantum gravity effect. Finally we give some information about which experimental accuracies can be expected in the future.
==endquote==