Ultra-slow Light and Bose-Einstein Condensation

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This award provides funds for initiating a project to study the properties of slow light and its interaction with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Within the course of the project, attempts will be made to reduce the speed of light to 1 cm/sec in the BEC. At this point the light speed is equivalent to the speed of sound in the condensate, and a number of predictions have been made about the condensate behavior. One is that atoms will surf on the front of the light pulse and that the propagating pulse will lose energy by exciting vibrations of the condensate. Secondly, shock waves can be generated and observed. Finally, the observation of quantized vortices is possible below the transition temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. All these phenomena will be addressed in the experiments.