Our group has active collaborations with researchers and laboratories worldwide. These collaborations are key to the research we are pursuing and they provide excellent training and networking opportunities with research internships in other labs.
Local collaborations
Our group has collaborations with groups and activities at TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle accelerator centre. TRIUMF is considered Canada’s premier physics laboratory, and consistently regarded as one of the world’s leading subatomic physics research centres.
TUCAN – TRIUMF
The TRIUMF UltraCold Advanced Neutron source collaboration (TUCAN) and TRIUMF’s UltraCold Neutron (UCN) group is exploring one of the great mysteries in physics – the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe – by making the most precise measurements ever of neutrons. For more information about our group’s work, see this page.
RadMol – TRIUMF
RadMol (the Radioactive Molecules group) at TRIUMF is pursuing the search for new physics using quantum control and precision measurement of exotic radioactive molecules that are sensitive to certain types of new physics. For more information about our group’s work, see this page.
International collaborations
Univ. Hannover, Univ of Bremen, and the PTB, GERMANY
In July 2022, our group started a collaboration with the Leibniz University of Hanover (Prof. Ilja Gerhardt), the Univ. of Bremen (group of Jens Grosse at ZARM), and the
Vacuum Metrology group (Dr. Matthias Bernien) and the Photonic Pressure measurement group (Dr. Tom Rubin) at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin (the PTB is the national metrology institute of Germany) to develop the atom-based quantum standard by comparing it with existing (classical) pressure standards. For this collaboration, my group constructed a portable cold-atom based pressure standard (a quantum sensor) and brought it to the PTB in Berlin where we have begun comparisons of atom measurements with those of an existing (classical) orifice flow pressure standard based on a mercury manometer. This work is ongoing and the goal is to perform the measurements necessary to establish the atom-based sensor as the internationally recognized pressure and density standard for the high-vacuum regime. This collaboration is supported through an NSERC Alliance International Catalyst grant.
University of Freiburg, GERMANY
In 2015, I helped to create an enriched, international PhD research and training program in collaboration with the University of Freiburg, Germany. For this, I was a co-applicant (with 8 UBC faculty and 10 UF faculty) on a major funding proposal that was awarded by the DFG (German Research Foundation)i 2015. These funds established the International Research Training Group (IRTG GRK 2079/1) “Cold Controlled Ensembles in Physics and Chemistry.” This IRTG was a joint PhD program whereby UBC and UF students had two supervisors (one from each institution) and participated in joint research projects that included work at both institutions. The IRTG funds provided travel support (directly to Canadian researchers) for student exchanges on both sides and for Canadian students to attend international workshops and summer schools related to the IRTG.
Since 2021, the groups of 8 PIs here at UBC and the groups of another 10 PIs at the University of Freiburg (Germany) have collaborated on a DFG (German Research Foundation) funded Research Training Group (RTG GRK 2717) “Dynamics of Controlled Atomic and Molecular Systems”. This RTG is a joint PhD program whereby UF students have two supervisors (one from each institution) and participated in joint research projects that include work at both institutions. These RTG funds also provide support for students in my group to work at the UF labs in Germany and to attend international workshops and summer schools associated with the RTG.
National Institutes of Standards and Technology, U.S.A.
Collaborator with NIST, United States of America
My collaboration with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (a world leader in metrology) was initiated by my 2012 visit where I proposed the use of cold atoms as a primary vacuum standard. NIST initiated a process to evaluate the technology and in 2016, NIST allocated substantial research funds ($20M USD over 10 years) to spin up a new group to realize my proposal. I continue to advise them on this effort, and their 2017 paper [Metrologia 54 S125] cites our seminal work and the 2011 patent. The acknowledgement reads, “The authors would like to thank inventors Kirk Madison at the University of British Colombia and James Booth at the British Colombia Institute of Technology for discussions about their own cold atom sensor, helping to launch the NIST effort.” As part of our collaboration, NIST provided a calibrated ionization gauge that we could use to demonstrate, in 2019, that the quantum measurement nature of collisions makes the atomic sensor self-calibrating.