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David DeMille – Quantum microscopes to search for new elementary particles and forces

 Headshot of David DeMille

Talk details

Talk abstract

From the speaker:

“All elementary particles and forces seen in laboratories are described by a mathematical framework known as the Standard Model.  However, some cosmological observations show that there also must be new, additional particles and forces.  Traditionally, physicists have searched for these using huge accelerators and giant detectors.  However, certain types of new particles and forces can be detected in a very different way: the laws of quantum physics dictate that their existence will modify the properties of ordinary matter in subtle but distinctive ways.  These tiny effects can be detected with experiments, small enough to fit in a garage, which use methods of ultra-precise quantum measurements to search for particles that cannot be produced even at the Large Hadron Collider.  This talk will describe such experiments and the concepts behind them.”

Presenter

David DeMille is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He also holds positions as a research professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, and a visiting scholar in the Physics Division at Argonne National Laboratory. DeMille’s research seeks to investigate the fundamental properties of the universe by making extremely precise measurements of quantum systems. He is known for novel approaches that use the properties of molecules to amplify signals from exotic particles and forces in the laboratory, and for developing ways to produce and trap ultracold gases of polar molecules. 

DeMille received his PhD in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994.  He previously served on the faculties of Yale University and Amherst College. He co-authored the textbook “Atomic Physics: an exploration through problems and solutions” (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004). His honors include the American Physical Society’s Norman F. Ramsey Prize (joint with John Doyle and Gerald Gabrielse) and its Francis M. Pipkin Award, as well as a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and a Packard Foundation Fellowship. DeMille was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2024.