The fundamental physics explorer: An ESA technology reference study

Quantum Physics in Space

“…In this context, space-based detectors hold the promise to be able to cover the sub-Hertz band opening an observational window on the early Universe. In addition, also the sensitivity to stochastic GW backgrounds should improve at low frequency [245][246][247][248][249]. The observation of such a background could provide insight into the theory of inflation and the physics beyond the standard model [74,[250][251][252][253][254][255][256][257][258][259].…”

Perspectives and Opportunities: A Molecular Toolkit for Fundamental Physics and Matter Wave Interferometry in Microgravity

“…In fact, serious limitations on their stability and lifetime can compromise their use as a viable tool for quantum sciences. In the past few years, however, greater attention [41][42][43] and investigation [44,45] have been given to the possibility of producing ultracold molecular gases in microgravity. This focus is driven by the fact that many of the environmental and practical limitations, on Earth, for reaching ever lower energy and higher symmetry regimes, and for extended atomatom and atom-photon coherences for these gases, are suppressed or removed altogether in microgravity environments such as NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL) facility operating on the International Space Station (ISS) [46] or the upcoming ISS-based Bose Einstein Condensate Cold Atom Lab (BECCAL) [47].…”

Perspectives and opportunities: a molecular toolkit for fundamental physics and matter-wave interferometry in microgravity *

“…In fact, serious limitations on their stability and lifetime can compromise their use as a viable tool for quantum sciences. In the past few years, however, greater attention [41][42][43][44] and investigation [45][46][47][48] have been given to the possibility of producing ultracold gases in microgravity. This focus is driven by the fact that many of the environmental and practical limitations, on Earth, for reaching ever lower energy and higher symmetry regimes, and for extended atom-atom and atom-photon coherences for these gases, are suppressed or removed altogether in microgravity environments such as NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL) facility operating on the International Space Station (ISS) [49] or the upcoming ISS-based Bose Einstein Condensate Cold Atom Lab (BECCAL) [44].…”