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Recently, I have seen a lot of discussion surrounding NASA and quantum technologies. Specifically, there is a paper that came out in Nature titled "Quantum gas mixtures and dual-species atom interferometry in space". NASA has a cold atom lab in space that tackles challenges such as making Bose Einstein Condensates in space. When I look up the benefit of this, there are many vague statements such as "to investigate quantum phenomenon at low temperatures" and to "set the stage for quantum chemistry" listed on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's website.

I am wondering what is the concrete benefit of doing quantum technological tasks in space? What new insights does this give us, and why is this a worthwhile endeavor?

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  • $\begingroup$ One issue that is immediately coming to mind would be the vastly smaller need for vibration damping, since it would not be connected to Earth and vibrating all over the place due to that. Not a new insight, but still interesting to see nonetheless. $\endgroup$
    – naturallyInconsistent
    Commented Dec 12, 2023 at 5:16

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Very good question! Microgravity has several advantages. This paper contains a list of those: https://epjquantumtechnology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-020-00090-8 (see chapter 1 and 2). To summarize a few important points:

  • Better special overlapp of the traps for different species
  • Longer free-evolution times for atom interferometry
  • Realization of trap geometries not possible on earth (e.g. Bubble geometries)
  • Realization of much colder Condensates (see also https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.100401)
  • Larger 3D box potentials (+ for multiple species)
  • Creation of a gas with a record-low entropy per particle

Essentially every experiment that is ruined by gravity can be realized!

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, I will take a look at the links for sure. I have seen these microgravity claims, but I am skeptical about them. Namely because gravity is not really that much smaller on ISS in terms of orders of magnitude. Does this small change really make that crucial a difference in scientific experiments? $\endgroup$
    – Relativisticcucumber
    Commented Feb 20 at 11:15
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    $\begingroup$ @Relativisticcucumber: Where do you get that gravity is not much smaller? From what I know, it is several tens of micro-g, making it 5 to 6 orders of magnitude lower. There are some vibrations onboard the ISS, but the paper above states, that the experiments are operated during the phase, where the astronauts rest. $\endgroup$
    – kai90
    Commented Feb 20 at 14:48
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, I was not aware the ISS is in free fall! I was only considering the height of ISS, but this question clarifies where the effect comes from. Thanks for helping me clarify that. @kai90 $\endgroup$
    – Relativisticcucumber
    Commented Feb 21 at 2:58

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