Detection of multiple forces at same time with a BEC interferometer

Our latest paper uses a symmetric matterwave interferometer, with an 87Rb BEC, to measure the background level of magnetic and gravitational forces simultaneously. A key result is that we have devised a method of measuring the ambient forces that are always present in the lab, even though these are too small to be detected in normal operation. The trick we use is to apply a number of known magnetic-field gradients to the system and to use precise data fitting to infer the background forces.

Detection of Applied and Ambient Forces with a Matterwave Magnetic-Gradiometer Phys. Rev. A 96, 053622 (2017).