Related papers: Improved noninterferometric test of collapse model…
Photo-induced forces can be used to manipulate and cool the mechanical motion of oscillators. When the oscillator is used as a force sensor, such as in atomic force microscopy, active feedback is an enticing route to enhancing measurement…
We determine the quantum mechanical limits to inertial mass-sensing based on nanomechanical systems. We first consider a harmonically oscillating cantilever whose vibration frequency is changed by mass accretion at its surface. We show that…
A general analysis of thermal noise in torsion pendulums is presented. The specific case where the torsion angle is kept fixed by electronic feedback is analyzed. This analysis is applied to a recent experiment that employed a torsion…
We demonstrate temperature measurement of a sample attached to the end of a cantilever using cantilever magnetometry of solid air ``contamination'' of the sample surface. In experiments like our Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM),…
We use a quantum point contact (QPC) as a displacement transducer to measure and control the low-temperature thermal motion of a nearby micromechanical cantilever. The QPC is included in an active feedback loop designed to cool the…
We achieved for the first time a direct measurement of the thermal fluctuation of a pendulum in an off-resonant region using a laser interferometric gravitational wave detector. These measurements have been well identified for over one…
A model of spontaneous wavefunction collapse, which is explicitly local and Lorentz-invariant, is defined. Some of the predictions of the model for specific experimental situations are derived. It is shown that, although incompatible…
We present a detailed modeling and characterization of our scalable microwave nanoprobe, which is a micro-fabricated cantilever-based scanning microwave probe with separated excitation and sensing electrodes. Using finite-element analysis,…
Exerting a nonequilibrium drive on an otherwise equilibrium Langevin process brings the dynamics out of equilibrium but can also speedup the approach to the Boltzmann steady-state. Transverse forces are a minimal framework to achieve…
Cooling down nanomechanical force probes is a generic strategy to enhance their sensitivities through the concomitant reduction of their thermal noise and mechanical damping rates. However, heat conduction mechanisms become less efficient…
The accurate analytical solution for the low temperature $1/f$ noise in a microwave dielectric constant of amorphous films containing tunneling two-level systems (TLSs) is derived within the standard tunneling model including the weak…
Careful monitoring of harmonically bound (or as a limiting case, free) masses is the basis of current and future gravitational wave detectors, and of nanomechanical devices designed to access the quantum regime. We analyze the effects of…
Context. Solar outflows are a considerable source of free energy which accumulates in multiple forms like beaming (or drifting) components and/or temperature anisotropies. However, kinetic anisotropies of plasma particles do not grow…
The concept of superlubricity has recently called upon notable interest after the demonstration of ultralow friction between atomistically smooth surfaces in layered materials. However, the energy dissipation process conditioning the…
We investigate the free convection processes in the vicinity of a spherical 1 kg mass standard by two- and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations using a spectral element method. Our focus is on the determination and suppression of…
We investigate the electrochemical processes within an electrolyser cell, which are modelled by a coupled system of second-order quasi-linear elliptic PDEs. In this context, we study an inverse problem aiming to reconstruct both the…
Reducing the thermal noises in microwave (MW) resonators can bring about significant progress in many research fields. In this study, we consider using three-level or four-level systems as "quantum refrigerators" to cool down MW resonators…
Motion of cantilever near sample surfaces exhibits additional friction even before two bodies come into mechanical contact. Called non-contact friction (NCF), this friction is of great practical importance to the ultrasensitive force…
Monitoring motion originating from ultra low-temperature cooling systems like cryocoolers is important for vibration sensitive cryogenic experiments like KAGRA. Since no commercial cryogenic accelerometers are available, we developed a…
Laser cooling has given a boost to atomic physics throughout the last thirty years since it allows one to prepare atoms in motional states which can only be described by quantum mechanics. Most methods, such as Doppler cooling, polarization…