Related papers: A Zero-Gravity Instrument to Study Low Velocity Co…
Planetisimals are thought to be formed from the solid material of a protoplanetary disk by a process of dust aggregation. It is not known how growth proceeds to kilometre sizes, but it has been proposed that water ice beyond the snowline…
In this paper we present results of two novel experimental methods to investigate the collisional behavior of individual macroscopic icy bodies. The experiments reported here were conducted in the microgravity environments of parabolic…
To reveal the formation of planetesimals it is of great importance to understand the collision behavior of the dusty and icy aggregates they have formed from. We present an experimental setup to investigate the aggregation properties in…
This work presents an experimental design for studying low-velocity collisions into granular surfaces in low-gravity. In the experiment apparatus, reduced-gravity is simulated by releasing a free-falling projectile into a surface container…
Most cold atoms experiments in microgravity platforms or in Space are achieved using atom chips, leading to limitations in terms of optical access and inhomogeneous magnetic fields. Optical dipole traps do not have these drawbacks but have…
We describe a versatile apparatus for optical observations of experimental processes at temperatures down to 0.1 K. The cooling is achieved by a wet cryostat with a dilution refrigerator on a vibrationally-isolated platform, capable of…
We describe the operation of a light pulse interferometer using cold 87Rb atoms in reduced gravity. Using a series of two Raman transitions induced by light pulses, we have obtained Ramsey fringes in the low gravity environment achieved…
A new instrument dedicated to the kinetic study of low-temperature gas phase neutral-neutral reactions, including clustering processes, is presented. It combines a supersonic flow reactor with Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) synchrotron…
We detail a platform for partial g environment and an experiment for simulated impacts on asteroid surfaces based on it. The partial g environment is created by a two stage approach: First, create microgravity using the ZARM drop tower.…
Cryogenic environments benefit ion trapping experiments by offering lower motional heating rates, collision energies, and an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment for maintaining long ion chains for extended periods of time. Mechanical…
Over the past years the processes involved in the growth of planetesimals have extensively been studied in the laboratory. Based on these experiments, a dust-aggregate collision model was developed upon which computer simulations were based…
Quantum computing qubits are notoriously fragile, requiring extreme isolation from environmental disturbances. This paper advances the hypothesis that a combination of microgravity and ultra-low temperature (near absolute zero) provides an…
In-vacuo cryogenic environments are ideal for applications requiring both low temperatures and extremely low particle densities. This enables reaching long storage and coherence times for example in ion traps, essential requirements for…
This paper presents a novel approach to launch single microparticles at high velocities under low vacuum conditions. In an all-optical table-top method, microparticles with sizes ranging from a few microns to tens of microns are accelerated…
The experiments presented aim to measure the outcome of collisions between sub-mm sized protoplanetary dust aggregate analogues. We also observed the clusters formed from these aggregates and their collision behaviour. The experiments were…
We describe a hybrid vacuum system in which a single ion or a well defined small number of trapped ions (in our case Ba$^+$ or Rb$^+$) can be immersed into a cloud of ultracold neutral atoms (in our case Rb). This apparatus allows for the…
The current model of planet formation lacks a good understanding of the growth of dust particles inside the protoplanetary disk beyond mm sizes. In order to investigate the low-velocity collisions between this type of particles, the…
In order to improve our understanding of landing on small bodies and of asteroid evolution, we use our novel drop tower facility to perform low-velocity (2-40 cm s^-1), shallow impact experiments of a 10 cm diameter aluminum sphere into…
We present the design and commissioning of a cryogenic low-vibration test facility that measures displacement noise from a gram-scale silicon cantilever at the level of 10$^{-16}\, \mathrm{m/\sqrt{Hz}}$ at 1kHz. A volume of $\sim$36 litres…
Collisions between centimeter- to decimeter-sized dusty bodies are important to understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of planetesimals. We thus performed laboratory experiments to study the collisional behavior of dust…