Quantum Many-Body Spin Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

这项研究将研究超出平均场极限的多体自旋原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚。我们的重点是产生和研究量子相关的自旋态，包括压缩态和纠缠态，以及探索这些态在磁场的量子增强测量中的应用。这项研究建立在我们最近对自旋-1凝聚体通过量子相变猝灭时产生的自旋-向列相压缩态的观察基础上。此外，我们还将研究非平衡量子自旋动力学，它将探索准孤立量子自旋系统中亚稳态、关联和纠缠的迷人交集。这些研究提供了对许多物理领域重要的多粒子量子力学基本原理的洞察。压缩和纠缠态在量子计量学、量子力学基础研究、量子信息和量子模拟等领域有着广泛的应用。这项工作利用和发展了许多超冷原子物理技术。超冷原子和分子已成为研究低能碰撞、量子简并气体(包括玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚态和简并费米气体)以及精确测量基本常数和对称性的重要工具。这些系统的技术应用包括用于导航和磁力测量的精密传感器、原子钟和包括量子信息和通信在内的新兴量子技术。超冷原子还提供了新的工具来研究凝聚态物理中的重要问题，包括被认为出现在各种受挫磁性材料和非传统超导体中的奇异磁序。

This research will investigate many-body spinor atomic Bose-Einstein condensates beyond the mean field limit. Our focus is on generating and studying quantum-correlated spin states including squeezed and entangled states, as well as exploring the application of these states to quantum-enhanced metrology of magnetic fields. This research builds upon our recent observation of spin-nematic squeezed states created in a spin-1 condensate quenched through a quantum phase transition. Additionally, we will investigate non-equilibrium quantum spin dynamics that will explore the fascinating intersection of metastability, correlations and entanglement in a quasi-isolated quantum spin system.These studies provide insight into fundamental principles of many-particle quantum mechanics that are important to many areas of physics. Squeezed and entangled states have a wide range of applications in quantum metrology, foundational studies of quantum mechanics, and quantum information and quantum simulations. This work utilizes and develops many of the techniques of ultra-cold atomic physics. Ultra-cold atoms and molecules have become important tools in studies of low-energy collisions, quantum degenerate gases (including Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases) and precision measurements of fundamental constants and symmetries. Technological applications of these systems include precision sensors for navigation and magnetometry, atomic clocks and emerging quantum technologies including quantum information and communication. Ultra-cold atoms also provide new tools to investigate important problems in condensed matter physics including exotic magnetic order thought to arise in a wide variety of frustrated magnetic materials and unconventional superconductors.