RUI: Many-Body Effects in a Frozen Rydberg Gas

该RUI奖为一项关于里德堡原子冷、致密样品碰撞的研究计划提供支持。在这种环境中的里德伯原子是强耦合的偶极相互作用。两个新的特征定义了这种环境。首先，原子移动的距离明显小于碰撞持续期间的平均间距。第二，平均原子间距小于碰撞参数，表明多体效应是重要的。因此，一个致密的冷里德伯原子样品的相互作用不太像“正常”气体中的相互作用，而更像扩散液体或无序固体的特征。“冻结气体”一词被用来描述这种环境。 两个主要的研究领域将继续进行：1）激子过程中冻结的气体，其中各种预测的激子扩散模型迁移人口远离接近的原子将进行调查和2）多光子辐射辅助碰撞在多体制度的初步调查。 由于是在一个本科院校与大量的物理专业，这个研究计划提供了希望继续研究生院或进入先进的高科技劳动力的学生的教育准备。

This RUI award provides support for a research program on collisions of cold, dense samples of Rydberg atoms. The Rydberg atoms in this environment are strongly coupled by the dipole interaction. Two novel features define this environment. First, the atoms move a distance that is significantly less than their mean separation during the time the collision lasts. Second, the mean atomic separation is less than the impact parameter, indicating that many-body effects are important. The interactions of a dense sample of cold Rydberg atoms are therefore less like those in a "normal" gas, and more like those characteristic of a diffuse liquid or disordered solid. The term "frozen gas" has been used to describe this environment. Two major areas of research will be pursued: 1) Exciton processes in a frozen gas, in which various predictions of an exciton diffusion model for migration of population away from close atoms will be investigated and 2) Preliminary investigations of multiphoton radiatively assisted collisions in the many-body regime. By virtue of being at an undergraduate institution with a significant number of physics majors, this research program offers educational preparation for students wishing to continue on to graduate school or enter the advanced high-tech workforce.