Mark Fromhold and Lucia Hackermuller tell us about how they are 3D printing atom traps that allow them to cool atoms to a few micro Kelvin. This is super interesting for cosmology because it would allow them, among many other things, to potentially trap dark domain walls. We learned in another recent cosmology talk about the physics behind these dark domain walls, now here is the physics behind the cold atom trap.

In principle these traps may one day measure the gravitational effects of quantum objects, ultimately testing whether space-time curvature can be in a quantum superposition or not.

This was the first Cosmology Talk publication to be delayed due to a patent application!

Lucia: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/people/lucia.hackermuller

Mark: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/people/mark.fromhold

Dark Domain Walls: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.01179