RUI: Ultracold Atoms in Ring-Shaped Lattices

由于原子、分子和光子系统的控制能力大大增强，预计未来几年将出现熟悉技术的剧变。在这些预期的革命中，传感器技术将影响广泛的设备，这些设备通常用于检测和测量电流、磁场和重力场以及光强度等。推动这些发展的关键因素是量子纠缠，即使是分离很远的量子系统的可观察属性之间的奇怪相关性。虽然纠缠在量子系统中无处不在，但它也非常微妙，并且可以通过量子系统与其环境的相互作用而改变或破坏。正是这种微妙之处，使得精细控制的量子系统成为潜在革命性传感器技术的源泉。该项目涉及由束缚在环形陷阱中的纠缠超冷原子形成的简单传感器。环形允许反向传播的物质波的干涉，形成一种对原子之间的相互作用具有灵敏度的干涉仪。此外，还将探讨结果在量子信息处理和新量子材料方面的其他应用。PI将积极培训并让众多本科生参与低成本大学的物理学研究，并在之前的赠款下扩大成功，以利用这一经验将学生引导到STEM职业道路上，包括许多来自代表性不足的人口。具体而言，该项目将对被困在具有多连接全局拓扑结构的晶格中的超冷原子可实现的现象进行全面研究，例如环，圆柱体或环面。非平凡拓扑自然地引入了周期性和扭曲的边界条件，包括通过规范场或旋转的有效通量，并揭示了量子态的相干性和非局域性。在这一大背景下，将审查范围广泛的专题。环形几何模型在理解非相对论物理学中拓扑和规范自由度的影响方面发挥了至关重要的作用。这项研究将开发和扩展这些模型，以便用冷原子进行可行的实施，以探测在构思这些模型时经常无法访问的场景。研究的现象包括人工规范场、量子霍尔效应、任意子物理、量子泵、霍夫施塔特模型、阿哈罗诺夫-玻姆效应和几何相位效应。自旋压缩，可以绕过不确定性的限制，和非线性动力学将检查在共享同一物理空间的原子的反循环集体模式的新背景下。在可能的情况下，这些现象将随着时间和空间的演变而动态地加以审查，注意到时间可以增加或取代其他自由度。将环视为人造原子，将在外部自由度中建立对应物，用于通常与内部自由度相关联的现象。

Upheavals of familiar technologies are expected in coming years due to the dramatically enhanced control of atomic, molecular and photonic systems. Among these anticipated revolutions is that in sensor technology, affecting a wide array of devices regularly used to detect and measure everything from electric currents, magnetic and gravitational fields, and light intensities, to name a few examples. The key element driving these developments is quantum entanglement, the strange correlations between observable properties of even widely-separated quantum systems. While entanglement is ubiquitous in quantum systems, it is also extremely delicate, and can be altered or spoiled by interactions of the quantum system with its environment. This delicacy is precisely what makes exquisitely controlled quantum systems the source of potentially revolutionary sensor technology. This project concerns simple sensors formed by entangled ultracold atoms confined in ring-shaped traps. The ring-shape allows for the interference of counter-propagating matter waves, forming a kind of interferometer which has exquisite sensitivity to interactions between the atoms. Additional applications of the results to quantum information processing and to new quantum materials will also be explored. The PI will actively train and involve numerous undergraduate students in physics research at a low cost university, and expand on success under prior grants to leverage this experience to channel students into STEM career paths, including many from under-represented demographics. Specifically, this project will conduct a comprehensive study of phenomena realizable with ultracold atoms trapped in lattices with a global topology that is multiply-connected, such as rings, cylinders or tori. The non-trivial topology naturally introduces periodic and twisted boundary conditions with the inclusion of effective flux via gauge fields or rotation, and reveals coherent and non-local features of quantum states. Within this general context, a broad range of topics will be examined. Models with ring-shaped geometry have played a crucial role in understanding the influences of topology and gauge freedoms in non-relativistic physics. This research will develop and extend those models for viable implementation with cold atoms to probe scenarios often inaccessible when such models were conceived. The phenomena to be so studied will include artificial gauge fields, quantum Hall effect, anyon physics, quantum pumps, Hofstadter model, and Aharonov-Bohm and geometric phase effects. Spin-squeezing, that can bypass uncertainty limits, and nonlinear dynamics will be examined in the novel context of counter-circulating collective modes of atoms sharing the same physical space. Where possible, the phenomena will be examined dynamically with evolution in time and space, noting that time can add or substitute for other degrees of freedom. Treating rings as artificial atoms, counterparts will be established in external degrees of freedom for phenomena usually associated with internal ones.