Interacting atoms in optical lattices

本项目涉及一系列在远共振光学晶格中相互作用冷原子的实验。将制备和研究耦合和独立的一维玻色子气体阵列，以帮助解决量子统计力学和量子相变的一些突出谜团。这个小组先前的实验已经在一个维度上探索了玻色气体的物理特性，证明了这些气体从不发热。新的实验将以几种方式放松原子的一维限制，并探索一维和三维行为之间的交叉。这些实验将解决一个长期开放的理论问题，即在多体量子系统中存在一个混沌阈值，就像在经典力学中一样。这个项目可以阐明宏观行为的不可逆性是如何从单个原子的可逆行为产生的。此外，研究将涉及耦合一维气体阵列的研究，类似于约瑟夫森结阵列。各种相变和维度交叉将在高度控制下进行研究，使它们能够作为在更复杂系统中观察到的广泛现象的模型。这些实验更广泛的影响在于冷原子实验能够为非线性动力学和数学物理中长期悬而未决的问题提供答案。该研究项目还将改进用全光学技术创造和操纵玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的技术。他们将在物理学的重要技术领域培养本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员。

This project involves a series of experiments with interacting cold atoms in far-off-resonance optical lattices. Arrays of coupled and independent one-dimensional gases of bosons will be prepared and studied to help resolve some outstanding mysteries of quantum statistical mechanics and quantum phase transitions. Prior experiments by this group have explored the physics of Bose-gases in one dimension, demonstrating that these gases never thermalize. New experiments will relax the one-dimensional confinement of atoms in several ways and explore the crossover between one-dimensional and three-dimensional behavior. These experiments will address a long open theoretical question of the existence of a threshold for chaos in a many-body quantum system, as there is in classical mechanics. This project may clarify how irreversibility of macroscopic behavior arises from the reversible behavior of individual atoms. Additionally the research will involve studies of arrays of coupled one-dimensional gases, an analog of Josephson junction arrays. Various phase transitions and dimensional crossovers will be studied with a high degree of control, allowing them to serve as models for a wide range of phenomena observed in more complicated systems. The broader impacts of these experiments lie in the ability of cold-atom experiments to provide answers to long-open questions in nonlinear dynamics and mathematical physics. The research project will also improve the technology for creation and manipulation of Bose-Einstein Condensates with all-optical techniques. They will train undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers in technologically important areas of physics.