Welcome to the DeMille Group!
We are an atomic/molecular/optical (AMO) physics group at University of Chicago that explores frontiers of molecular, particle, and nuclear physics! Our primary themes of research are:
• Using diatomic molecules as amplifying quantum sensors of fundamental physics
• Developing new methods to produce ultracold polar molecules
• Exploiting strong dipolar interactions between long-lived molecules
Our particle and nuclear experiments are:
• small enough to fit in a single room
• sensitive enough to
—detect certain new particles with mass >> 1 TeV
—measure poorly-understood properties of the electroweak force
Our Research
ACME
electron electric dipole moment search
(leptonic CP violation,
towards understanding cosmological
matter-antimatter asymmetry)
Direct laser cooling & trapping
of polar molecules
(towards quantum degeneracy
and a strongly-correlated quantum gas)
CeNTREX
proton electric dipole moment search
(hadronic CP violation,
towards understanding cosmological
matter-antimatter asymmetry)
Assembling polar molecules
from ultracold atoms
(towards next-generation EDMs
and ultra-polar molecular arrays)
ZOMBIES
nuclear anapole moment measurements
(hadronic parity violation,
to measure how the electroweak force
is modified by the strong force)
Miscellaneous projects
(Quantum information processing,
axion dark matter search, etc.)
Recent News
09/26/2023
Welcome to our new undergrad Akiva Davis! Akiva will be working on the molecule assembly experiment
08/16/2023
Our postdoc, Xing Wu, is starting a new job as a professor at FRIB where he’ll be working on pioneering new techniques to make cold molecules and also using radioactive molecules to test fundamental symmetries. Congratulations Xing!
06/08/2023
Welcome to our new undergrads Ryan Rosenthal and Melchior Jean! Both Ryan and Melchior will be working on the molecule assembly experiment
Our Funding
