title: Bose-Einstein condensation in microgravity.
abstract: Albert Einstein's insight that it is impossible to distinguish a local experiment in a "freely falling elevator" from one in free space led to the development of the theory of general relativity. The wave nature of matter manifests itself in a striking way in Bose-Einstein condensates, where millions of atoms lose their identity and can be described by a single macroscopic wave function. We combine these two topics and report the preparation and observation of a Bose-Einstein condensate during free fall in a 146-meter-tall evacuated drop tower. During the expansion over 1 second, the atoms form a giant coherent matter wave that is delocalized on a millimeter scale, which represents a promising source for matter-wave interferometry to test the universality of free fall with quantum matter.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
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authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: van Zoest
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authors.lastname: Gaaloul
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authors.lastname: Singh
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authors.lastname: Ahlers
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authors.lastname: Herr
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authors.lastname: Seidel
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authors.lastname: Ertmer
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authors.lastname: Rasel
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authors.lastname: Eckart
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authors.lastname: Kajari
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authors.lastname: Arnold
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authors.lastname: Nandi
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authors.lastname: Schleich
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authors.lastname: Walser
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authors.lastname: Vogel
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authors.lastname: Sengstock
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authors.lastname: Bongs
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authors.lastname: Lewoczko-Adamczyk
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authors.lastname: Schiemangk
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authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schuldt
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authors.lastname: Peters
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authors.lastname: Könemann
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authors.lastname: Müntinga
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authors.lastname: Lämmerzahl
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authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dittus
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authors.lastname: Steinmetz
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authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Hänsch
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reichel