Alex Rider

Online resume of Alex Rider

Research

Overview

My past research at Stanford tests the laws of gravity and searches for unknown particles.

Our tabletop physics experiments, aptly named as they could fit on a kitchen table, compete head to head against multi-billion-dollar particle accelerators testing the same physics.

The group I worked with at the Stanford Physics Department is particularly interested in developing accelerometers, similar to the chip in your smartphone which tells which way is up or down. Our ultra-sensitive, custom-built accelerometers attempt to detect the signature of a breakdown in the laws of gravity or the existence of a new particle. These would show up as a microscopic mass accelerating just a little bit more than we would expect. If we made a discovery, it would mean that our current understanding of the laws of physics is incomplete and could lead to a revolution in our understanding of the Universe.

Publications

  • Alexander D. Rider, Charles P. Blakemore, Akio Kawasaki, Nadav Priel, Sandip Roy, and Giorgio Gratta. “Electrically Driven, Optically Levitated Micro-Gyroscopes” arXiv:1812.09625 – Posted 22 December 2018, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.09625.pdf, PDF
  • Alexander D. Rider, David C. Moore, Charles P. Blakemore, Maxime Louis, Marie Lu, and Giorgio Gratta. “Search for Screened Interactions Associated with Dark Energy Below the 100 μm Length Scale” Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 101101 (29 August, 2016), doi:/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.101101, PDF
  • Alexander D. Rider, Charles P. Blakemore, Giorgio Gratta, David C. Moore. “Single-beam Dielectric Microsphere Trapping with Optical Heterodyne Detection” Phys. Rev. A 97, 013842 (25 January 2018) arXiv:1710.03558 [physics.ins-det], PDF
  • Charles P. Blakemore, Alexander D. Rider, Sandip Roy, Qidong Wang, Akio Kawasaki, and Giorgio Gratta. “Three-dimensional force-field microscopy with optically levitated microspheres.” arXiv:1810.05779 – Posted 13 October 2018. To be published in PRA, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.05779.pdf, PDF
  • David C. Moore, Alexander D. Rider, and Giorgio Gratta. “Search for Millicharged Particles Using Optically Levitated Microspheres”
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 251801 (16 December, 2014), doi:/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.251801, PDF
    Also see a short summary in APS Physics.
  • Z. Ahmed, M.A. Bowles, R. Bunker, S.R. Golwala, D.R. Grant, M. Kos, R.H. Nelson, A. Rider, R.W. Schnee, D. Sotolongo, B. Wang, A. Zahn. “A Prototype Low-Background Multiwire Proportional Chamber” JINST 9 (2014) no.01, P01009 (23 July, 2013), arXiv:1307.6154, PDF

Presentations

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