The Helgoland 2025 meeting, marking 100 years of quantum mechanics, has featured a lot of mind-bending fundamental physics, quite a bit of which has left me scratching my head.
So it was great to hear a brilliant talk by David Moore of Yale University about some amazing practical experiments using levitated, trapped microspheres as quantum sensors to detect what he calls the “invisible” universe.
If the work sounds familar to you, that’s because Moore’s team won a Physics World Top 10 Breakthrough of the Year award in 2024 for using their technique to detect the alpha decay of individual lead-212 atoms.
Speaking in the Nordseehalle on the island of Helgoland, Moore explained the next stage of the experiment, which could see it detect neutrinos “in a couple of months” at the earliest – and “at least within a year” at the latest.
Of course, physicists have already detected neutrinos, but it’s a complicated business, generally involving huge devices in deep underground locations where background signals are minimized. Yale’s set up is much cheaper, smaller and more convenient, involving no more than a couple of lab benches.
As Moore explained, he and his colleagues first trap silica spheres at low pressure, before removing excess electrons to electrically neutralize them. They then stabilize the spheres’ rotation before cooling them to microkelvin temperatures.
In the work that won the Physics World award last year, the team used samples of radon-220, which decays first into polonium-216 and then polonium-212. These nuclei embed theselves in the silica spheres, which recoil when the polonium-212 decays by releasing an alpha particle (Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 023602).
Moore’s team is able to measure the tiny recoil by watching how light scatters off the spheres. “We can see the force imparted by a subatomic particle on a heavier object,” he told the audience at Helgoland. “We can see single nuclear decays.”
Now the plan is to extend the experiment to detect neutrinos. These won’t (at least initially) be the neutrinos that stream through the Earth from the Sun or even those from a nuclear reactor.
Instead, the idea will be to embed the spheres with nuclei that undergo beta decay, releasing a much lighter neutrino in the process. Moore says the team will do this within a year and, one day, potentially even use to it spot dark matter.
“We are reaching the quantum measurement regime,” he said.
This article forms part of Physics World‘s contribution to the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), which aims to raise global awareness of quantum physics and its applications.
Stayed tuned to Physics World and our international partners throughout the next 12 months for more coverage of the IYQ.
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