Measuring Gravity Really, Really, Well Using Cold Atoms

Brynle Barrett

Abstract: Gravity is a fundamental force of nature that profoundly affects our everyday lives. We experience gravity as a perpetual pull toward the Earth’s surface. This force varies on a small scale due to a variety of effects, such as the local density of crustal rock and the position of the Moon in the sky. These small changes in gravitational acceleration are essential for navigation systems, natural resource exploration, and defence. My research uses laser-cooled atoms to create super-sensitive “quantum sensors” for measuring gravity at extremely small scales. In this talk, I will discuss how we cool atoms toward absolute zero, how we use these atoms as sensors, and what exciting things they can tell us about our surroundings.

Bio: Brynle Barrett is an Associate Professor at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). His area of expertise is quantum inertial sensors, cold atoms and matter-wave interferometry. Brynle received his BSc from Saint Mary’s University in 2005 and his PhD from York University in 2012 for his research on matter-wave interferometry and its application to precise tests of quantum electrodynamics. He was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship from the French space agency (CNES) to construct a mobile cold-atom-based sensor for quantum tests of Einstein’s equivalence principle at the Laboratoire Photonique, Numerique et Nanoscience (LP2N) in Bordeaux. This experiment was the first to test the equivalence principle in weightlessness onboard an aircraft undergoing parabolic flight. In 2015, Brynle was recruited by iXblue (now Exail)—a French tech company that specializes in fiber-optic gyroscopes, photonic components, and inertial navigation—to establish a joint academic-industrial laboratory to develop quantum technologies for positioning and navigation. He joined the physics faculty at UNB in January 2021 and established the Quantum Sensing and Ultra-cold Matter (QSUM) laboratory. Brynle has co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in atomic physics, and three industrial patents pertaining to quantum inertial sensors and cold-atom technology.

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