Studies of Impurity-Atom Dynamics in Lattice-Modulated Bosonic Mixtures

粒子与其周围环境的耦合使固体和低温系统中的极化子形成等重要的凝聚态现象成为可能，也是退相干和耗散研究中的一个中心概念。本项目致力于利用捕获在光学晶格中的超冷玻色原子的混合物对这种耦合系统进行实验研究。在依赖于状态的光学晶格中使用玻色子原子的超精细基态混合物允许局域原子沉浸在玻色子背景介质中。该项目的目标之一是在强相互作用的极限下以光谱方式检测极化子的能量移动和聚集。另一个目标是研究局域驱动原子自旋与玻色子超流体耦合的动力学，作为研究量子耗散效应的自旋-玻色子模型的简单实现。第三个目标是使用依赖态势作为操纵工具，研究一维自旋混合物的非平衡动力学，以观察自旋-电荷分离的可能性。对复杂材料特有行为的阐明将有可能产生广泛的科学和技术影响，最终造福社会。该项目将推动量子气体研究的最新发展，并将为研究生和本科生提供科学和技术培训，这些学生将熟练掌握激光和光学、超高真空和电子学的使能技术。

The coupling of a particle to its surroundings enables important condensed-matter phenomena such as the formation of polarons in solid-state and low-temperature systems, and is a central concept in the study of decoherence and dissipation. This project focuses on the experimental study of such coupled systems using mixtures of ultracold bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice. Using a hyperfine-ground state mixture of bosonic atoms in state-dependent optical lattices allows for the immersion of localized atoms in a bosonic background medium. One of the goals of the projectis to detect polaronic energy shifts and clustering spectroscopically in the limit of strong interactions. Another goal is to study the dynamics of a localized, driven atomic spin coupled to a bosonic superfluid as a simple realization of a spin-boson model for the study of quantum dissipative effects. Using state-dependent potentials as a manipulation tool, a third goal is to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics of one-dimensional spin mixtures with the possibility of observing spin-charge separation. The elucidation of behavior specific to complex materials will have the potential for broad scientific and technological impact that can ultimately benefit society. The project will advance the state of the art of quantum-gas research in this direction, and it will also provide scientific and technical training to both graduate and undergraduate students who will gain proficiency in the enabling technologies of lasers and optics, ultrahigh vacuum, and electronics.