Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

<p>Quantum mechanics is the universal mathematical language that we use to describe and predict the behavior of physical systems. While encompassing standard or so-called ""classical"" properties, the predictions of quantum mechanics also include exotic and surprising phenomena that are both challenging our ideas about the nature of reality and that are being exploited today to improve society through better communication (quantum cryptography), data storage (quantum effects in solid state devices), navigational and remote sensing (atom interferometers), and measurement technologies (quantum material based sensors).</p><p>Refrigeration of atomic gases with laser light has produced the coldest materials ever achieved and has provided science with a completely new physical system ideally suited to study the mysteries of many-body quantum mechanics and to test the promise of recent proposals for new quantum materials. The proposed equipment is needed to upgrade and repair the only facility in Canada (one of ten worldwide) that can and has produced a molecular Bose Einstein condensate - a new form of quantum matter first realised in 2003. This equipment would support our ongoing effort to use cold atoms and molecules to search for and study fundamental phenomena predicted to occur in many-body quantum systems. The central goals of quantum materials research are to discover and study new quantum materials and phenomena (i.e. material properties) and to develop new technologies based on them. The proposed work is expected to directly benefit and complement quantum materials research in condensed matter systems and to indirectly benefit other research domains reliant on a better understanding of few- and many-body quantum phenomena including nuclear physics, high-energy particle physics, and cosmology.</p>