Francis M. Pipkin Award Talk - Precision Measurement with Atom Interferometry

Atom interferometers are relatives of Young's double-slit experiment that use matter waves. They leverage light-atom interactions to masure fundamental constants, test fundamental symmetries, sense weak fields such as gravity and the gravity gradient, search for elusive ``fifth forces,'' and potentially test properties of antimatter and detect gravitational waves. We will discuss large (multiphoton-) momentum transfer that can enhance sensitivity and accuracy of atom interferometers several thousand fold. We will discuss measuring the fine structure constant to sub-part per billion precision and how it tests the standard model of particle physics. Finally, there has been interest in light bosons as candidates for dark matter and dark energy; atom interferometers have favorable sensitivity in searching for those fields. As a first step, we present our experiment ruling out chameleon fields and a broad class of other theories that would reproduce the observed dark energy density.