CPAC is part of a new collaboration with NIST Boulder on the topic of quantum sensing: Quantum-Enhanced Metrology with Trapped Ions for Fundamental Physics (supported by the DOE HEP QuantISED program). The objective of this work is to realize precision measurements with trapped, laser-cooled ions that address a set of questions of major interest to High Energy Physics. The team consists of John Bollinger (NIST), Salman Habib (Argonne, PI), David Hume (NIST, PI), and David Leibrandt. We will use techniques from quantum metrology developed in the NIST Ion Storage Group and apply them to cutting edge precision measurements. The questions that we will address are: 1) Are the fundamental constants truly constant, or do they vary in time or space? 2) What is the nature of dark matter — can it be described as an ultra-light particle coupling weakly to normal matter? 3) Can quantum-enhanced metrology with trapped atoms solve metrological problems of interest to HEP — under what conditions is this approach the best solution?
