Eduard Atonga, DPHIL ATOMIC AND LASER PHYSICS

I am a current DPhil student in Peter Norrey’s research group, having joined in October 2021. I completed my studies at University College, obtaining a Master of Philosophy in Physics. During my final year, I undertook a project that involved optimizing plasma flow in guided ion engines through the use of genetic algorithms. Currently, for my DPhil, I am engaged in investigating the feasibility of conducting a gravitational Hertz experiment.

The significance of controlling gravitational fields in the laboratory was initially emphasized by Weber in 1960. However, the exploration of gravitational properties in conjunction with electromagnetic fields predates this period. As early as the 1930s, Tolman et al., in their work "On the Gravitational Field Produced by Light," demonstrated the absence of gravitational interaction among parallel light beams, while anti-parallel beams exhibited double the naive Newtonian force. Expanding on this basis, Gertsenshtein, in his seminal 1962 paper "Wave Resonance of Light and Gravitational Waves," proposed the potential conversion of electromagnetic and gravitational waves via a wave resonance mechanism within a static magnetic field. Due to the feeble interaction between electromagnetic and gravitational fields, only with the recent emergence of high-energy laser systems has the feasibility of experimentally conducting a gravitational Hertz experiment been reexamined.

During my second year, I delved into the gravitational impacts of twisted light. This exploration unveiled a distinctive nature in the gravitational waves emitted by such a system, divergent from those emitted by massive objects. In the ongoing academic year, my focus has shifted to the inverse process. I am investigating the influence of gravitational waves on twisted light within the Fermi-normal coordinate system. The aim is to assess the viability of constructing a detection scheme capable of identifying terrestrial gravitational waves using existing or soon-to-be-available laser facilities.

Email: eduard.atonga@physics.ox.ac.uk
Oxford Physics Page: https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/our-people/atonga