According to a report on the website of New Scientist on November 2nd, French scientists have created the most sensitive force sensor yet using extremely cold rubidium atoms. It can measure a force of one tenth the force required to lift a single electron, and is expected to reveal the existence of new forces in the future. The relevant paper has been submitted to the preprint website. Six laser beams cool and capture atoms before feeding them into the interferometer. Image source: All known forces of the European Space Agency are derived from four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. But some experiments or observations attempting to reveal the mysteries of the universe suggest that there may be an unknown fifth force. Scientists believe that this force is very weak and can only be measured at very close distances, thus requiring extremely sensitive equipment. In view of this, the team from the French National Laboratory of Metrology and Testing, Jayne Barrand, used rubidium atoms to manufacture the most sensitive force detector known to date. The Barrand team first placed 120000 rubidium atoms in a vacuum metal glass cylinder, and then cooled the atoms to near absolute zero using a laser. The resulting supercooled atoms are very sensitive to electric fields and light, so the quantum states of these supercooled atoms can be precisely controlled using electric fields and light. The research team used this control method to turn these components into an interferometer. This is a device filled with material waves, where material waves collide with each other and produce predictable changes when strong nearby. To test the sensitivity of the sensor, the team measured the force between atoms and mirrors in the device. This force is caused by quantum processes that occur in seemingly empty spaces and is very weak. The team measured it with unprecedented accuracy, and the results showed that its size was as low as 4qN (1qN=10-30 Newton), which is one tenth of the weight of a single electron. Jeffrey McGill of Simon Fraser University in Canada stated that such a small force is extremely difficult to measure, and the new sensor can measure it from a few micrometers away, with the potential to discover new forces in the future. (New News Agency)