Strongly Interacting Quantum Mixtures of Ultracold Atoms

这个实验研究计划旨在研究玻色子和费米子气体的强相互作用混合物，以实现量子物质的新形式。主要目标是创造锂-6和钾-40原子的混合物，这是观察不同费米子的费米子超流动性的一个有希望的候选者。这个系统可以在核物质中找到类似的东西，在核物质中质子和中子形成超流体对，在中子星内部的致密夸克物质中也可以找到类似的东西。对原子气体性质的精确控制使它们成为多体物理的理想模型系统。这个实验将使气体处于旋转状态，这样原子就能模仿电子在磁场中的行为，这是一个具有重大技术意义的课题。原子间的相互作用可以通过费什巴赫散射共振自由调谐。这提供了将两个不同的原子结合成异核分子并实现它们的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的前景。在基态，这些分子将有一个大的电偶极矩，这可能允许创造具有各向异性相互作用的量子流体。该计划将测试并因此推进当前复杂物质的理论，因此与物理学的各个领域相关，从凝聚态物理学和材料科学到核物理学和天体物理学。这项工作将为学生提供研究训练，从而将研究与教育目标结合起来。

This experimental research program is aimed at the study of strongly interacting mixtures of bosonic and fermionic gases, with the goal of realizing novel forms of quantum matter. The primary objective is the creation of a mixture of lithium-6 and potassium-40 atoms, a promising candidate for the observation of fermionic superfluidity with unlike fermions. This system finds its analogies for example in nuclear matter, where protons and neutrons form superfluid pairs, and in the dense quark matter inside a neutron star. The precise control over the properties of atomic gases makes them ideal model systems for many-body physics. The experiment will allow setting the gas under rotation, so that atoms will mimic the behavior of electrons in a magnetic field, a subject of great technological importance. Interactions between the atoms can be freely tuned via Feshbach scattering resonances. This offers the prospect of binding two unlike atoms into heteronuclear molecules and realizing their Bose-Einstein condensation. In the ground state, these molecules will have a large electric dipole moment, which may allow the creation of a quantum fluid with anisotropic interactions.This program will test and thereby advance current theories of complex matter and is thus relevant to diverse fields of physics, from condensed matter physics and material science to nuclear physics and astrophysics. The work will provide research training for students, thereby combining research with education objectives.