Colloquium: Physics & Astronomy – Holger Müller
About the event
The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites all to a colloquium featuring Holger Müller, Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley. Dr. Müller will present their talk, “Measurement of the fine structure constant as test of the standard model.”
Meet for refreshments before the lecture at 3:45 – 4:10 p.m. in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall.
Abstract:
Measurements of the fine-structure constant are powerful tests of the consistency of theory and experiment in physics. Using the recoil frequency of cesium-133 atoms in a matter-wave interferometer, we recorded a measurement of the fine=structure constant α = 1/137.035999046(27) at 0.20 parts per billion accuracy using multiphoton interactions such as Bragg diffraction and Bloch oscillators. Comparison with Penning trap measurements of the electron gyromagnetic anomaly via the Standard Model of particle physics has implications for dark-sector and electron substructure. We will close with an outlook on future applications of matterwave interferometry.