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

对冷原子及其相互作用的研究目前处于原子物理学研究的前沿。使用冷原子的许多有趣的新领域都与碰撞密切相关，即原子彼此接近时如何相互作用。尽管我们对最简单的化学元素了解甚多，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，这些碰撞特性，除了具有基本的科学兴趣外，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各种各样的原子，从氮原子（最重要的工业和生物分子的原子组成部分）到镝原子（一种罕见且具有很强磁性的物质）。待研究的原子包括费米子原子、具有大磁偶极矩的原子、高度相对论性原子和具有非平凡壳层结构的原子。这些物种的碰撞相互作用将被研究，进一步加深我们对冷碰撞物理的理解。该项目包括现代技术多个领域的研究生和博士后培养。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（就冷原子物理而言）领域的许多不同元素。该项目的很大一部分将集中在氮气原子气体（特别是氮气）上，这将是制造超冷含氮气分子的前体。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、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.