Ground experiment verification and on-orbit prediction of the two-stage cooling at pK level in the Chinese space station

Abstract

Abstract In order to infer the expected temperature of the two-stage cooling experiment onboard the Chinese space station (CSS) through ground experiments, we apply the direct simulation Monte Carlo algorithm to construct a simulation model suitable for both the standard gravity and the microgravity conditions. The simulations are verified by the ground experimental results, from which we can deduce that the on-orbit experiments can reach the order of as low as 100 pK. This algorithm calculates the corresponding relationship between the temperature in the ground experiments and that in the microgravity conditions, keeping the other experimental parameters unchanged, which provides an important basis of design for the on-orbit atomic cooling experiment onboard the CSS which is due to be launched at the end of 2022.