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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Robin McKie

‘It’s the perfect place’: London Underground hosts tests for ‘quantum compass’ that could replace GPS

Dr Joseph Cotter with the UK's first commercial quantum accelerometer for navigation.
Dr Joseph Cotter with his underground luggage, the UK's first commercial quantum accelerometer for navigation. Photograph: Thomas Angus

Dr Joseph Cotter takes some unusual pieces of luggage on his trips on the London underground. They include a stainless steel vacuum chamber, a few billion atoms of rubidium and an array of lasers that are used to cool his equipment to a temperature just above absolute zero.

While not the average kit you would expect to find being dragged into carriages on the District Line, this is the gear that Cotter – who works at Imperial College London’s Centre for Cold Matter – uses on his underground travels.

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