Precision measurements of fundamental quantities test the standard model of particle physics and may even be used to search for new particles and interactions. We will report on our measurement of the fine-structure constant to an accuracy of 0.20 parts per billion (ppb), how it impacts fundamental physics, and how we plan to improve the accuracy further to a level of 0.02 ppb. Building a new setup, we will take the spatial mode quality of the laser beam to an unprecedented level. We will also report on "lattice interferometry" in which we have interfered quantum states after storing them at spatially separated locations for as long as 20 seconds, and how we plan to use them for new gravitational experiments with matter waves

Biography:

Holger Müller successfully applied for his first patent when he was 14. Later, he did his undergraduate thesis with Jürgen Mlynek at the University of Konstanz, Germany. He graduated from Humboldt-University, Berlin, with Achim Peters as advisor. Müller received a fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation and joined the group of Steven Chu in Stanford as a postdoc. In July 2008, he joined the physics faculty at U.C. Berkeley.