Physics with New Atomic Systems, Quantum Interactions, Cooling and Applications

冷原子及其相互作用的研究目前处于原子物理研究的前沿。许多使用冷原子的有趣的新前沿与碰撞密切相关，也就是说，当原子接近彼此时，它们如何相互作用。虽然对最简单的化学元素已经知道很多，但我们才刚刚开始了解元素周期表中原子的碰撞行为。然而，这些碰撞性质，除了具有基本的科学意义外，还将决定进一步应用的可能性。这项研究的具体目标是冷却和研究范围广泛的原子，从氮(最重要的工业和生物分子的原子构件)到镝(一种稀有的、磁性很强的物种)。要研究的原子包括费米子物种、具有大磁偶极矩的原子、高度相对论的原子和具有非平凡壳层结构的原子。将研究这些物种的碰撞相互作用，进一步加深我们对冷碰撞物理的理解。该项目包括在许多现代技术领域的研究生和博士后学者培训。预计这项工作将产生广泛的科学影响，因为将研究元素周期表中未知领域(冷原子物理方面)的许多不同元素。该项目的很大一部分将集中在pNictogen原子气体(特别是氮气)上，这将是制造含有pNictogen的超冷分子的先驱。将冷原子的研究扩展到新的物种，可能会对理解凝聚态系统、电子材料、化学过程和量子信息科学、凝聚态量子模拟以及对我们最基本的自然规律--标准模型--的精确度测试产生重大影响。

The study of cold atoms and their interactions is now at the forefront of atomic physics research. Many intriguing new frontiers using cold atoms are strongly connected with collisions, that is, how atoms interact when they approach each other. Although much is known about the simplest chemical elements, we are just beginning to understand the collisional behavior of atoms from across the periodic table. Yet, these collisional properties, in addition to being of fundamental scientific interest, will determine the possibilities for further applications.The specific goal of this research is to cool and study a wide range of atoms, all the way from Nitrogen, an atomic building block of the most important industrial and biological molecules, to Dysprosium, a rare and very magnetic species. Atoms to be studied include Fermionic species, atoms with large magnetic dipole moments, highly relativistic atoms, and atoms with non-trivial shell structure. The collisional interactions of these species will be studied, furthering our understanding of cold collision physics.This project includes graduate student and postdoctoral scholar training in many areas of modern technology. It is expected that this work will have broad scientific impact, as many different elements from across the uncharted (in terms of cold atom physics) territory of the periodic table will be studied. A large fraction of the project will be concentrated on pnictogen atomic gases (especially nitrogen), which would be a precursor in the manufacture of ultracold pnictogen containing molecules. Broadening the study of cold atoms to new species may have significant impact on understanding of condensed matter systems, electronic materials, chemical processes, and quantum information science, condensed matter quantum simulation, and precision tests of our most fundamental laws of nature, the Standard Model.