Continuous accumulation of cold atoms in an optical cavity Gheorghita, Edward-Fulbright Wald, Sebastian ; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5869-1604 Pupić, Andrea Hosten, Onur ; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2031-204X ddc:530 Continuously operating atom-light interfaces represent a key prerequisite for steady-state quantum sensors and efficient quantum processors. Here, we demonstrate continuous accumulation of sub-Doppler-cooled atoms in a shallow intracavity dipole trap, realizing this regime. The key ingredient is a light-shift manipulation that creates spatially varying cooling parameters, enabling efficient capture and accumulation of atoms within a cavity mode. Demonstrated with rubidium atoms, a continuous flux from a source cell is funneled through the magneto-optical trap into the cavity mode, where the atoms are cooled and maintained below 10µK in steady state without time-sequenced operation. We characterize the resulting continuously maintained ensemble of millions of atoms and its collective coupling to the cavity field, establishing a route toward continuously operated cavity-QED systems and long-duration atomic and hybrid quantum sensors. American Physical Society 2026 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/22642 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/download/22642/22643 Gheorghita E-F, Wald S, Pupić A, Hosten O. Continuous accumulation of cold atoms in an optical cavity. <i>Physical Review A</i>. 2026;114(2). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/71f2-sq4p">10.1103/71f2-sq4p</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1103/71f2-sq4p info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2469-9926 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/e-issn/2469-9934 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/arxiv/2512.14528 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess