RUI: Many-Body Effects in a Frozen Rydberg Gas

该RUI奖为里德堡原子的冷态、致密样品的碰撞研究项目提供支持。该环境中的里德堡原子通过偶极相互作用强耦合。两个新颖的特征定义了这个环境。首先，在碰撞持续的时间内，原子移动的距离明显小于它们的平均间隔。第二，平均原子间距小于碰撞参数，说明多体效应是重要的。因此，致密的冷里德堡原子样本的相互作用不太像“正常”气体中的相互作用，而更像是扩散的液体或无序固体的特征。“冷冻气体”一词被用来描述这种环境。将进行两个主要领域的研究：1)冻结气体中的激子过程，其中将研究激子扩散模型中粒子从近原子迁移的各种预测，以及2)多体区域中多光子辐射辅助碰撞的初步研究。由于是在一所拥有大量物理专业的本科院校，该研究项目为希望继续攻读研究生或进入先进的高科技劳动力的学生提供教育准备。

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.