Ultra-slow Light and Bose-Einstein Condensation

该奖项为启动一个研究慢光的性质及其与玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体(BEC)相互作用的项目提供资金。在项目过程中，将尝试将BEC的光速降低到1厘米/秒。在这一点上，光速等于凝聚体中的音速，并且已经对凝聚体的行为做出了许多预测。其一是原子将冲浪在光脉冲的前沿，传播的脉冲将因激发凝聚体的振动而损失能量。其次，可以产生和观察冲击波。最后，在玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的转变温度以下有可能观测到量子化的涡旋。所有这些现象都将在实验中得到解决。

This award provides funds for initiating a project to study the properties of slow light and its interaction with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Within the course of the project, attempts will be made to reduce the speed of light to 1 cm/sec in the BEC. At this point the light speed is equivalent to the speed of sound in the condensate, and a number of predictions have been made about the condensate behavior. One is that atoms will surf on the front of the light pulse and that the propagating pulse will lose energy by exciting vibrations of the condensate. Secondly, shock waves can be generated and observed. Finally, the observation of quantized vortices is possible below the transition temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. All these phenomena will be addressed in the experiments.