Conveners
W1-1 Degenerate Quantum Gases and Cold Atoms and Molecules (DAMOPC/DCMMP) | Gaz quantiques dégénérés, molécules et atomes froids (DPAMCP/DPMCM)
- Tim Friesen (TRIUMF (CA))
In physics, universality refers to the existence of properties that are independent of short-range structural details. For example, critical phenomena that are insensitive to the details of microscopic interactions exhibit the same bulk scaling behavior (e.g. critical exponents and scaling functions) for microscopically distinct systems. Such insensitivity of the low-energy degrees of freedom...
Cold atoms have revolutionized experimental physics, leading to breakthroughs ranging from the creation of new states of quantum matter to the redefinition of the primary SI units. In our work, we have been studying collisions between cold Rb atoms held in a magnetic trap and room temperature background gas particles. These collisions are particularly interesting owing to the fact that they...
Reactive and inelastic collisions of ultra-cold molecules has generally been observed to follow a universal rate law described by the quantum Langevin model. The salient feature of this law is an independence of the reaction probability from the short-range physics of the interaction. We report on reactive and inelastic collisions of $^6$Li$_2$ dimers in several ro-vibrational states of the...
Here, we study the effects of various time-dependent artificial gauge fields on a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of rubidium-87 atoms. In particular, we perform numerical simulations of a quasi-3D BEC in a harmonic trap subjected to artificial gauge fields. We study oscillating synthetic electric fields, synthetic magnetic fields, and combinations thereof; we look at the contributions from...
We demonstrate that linear effective magnetic fields can stabilize longitudinal spin domains in a weakly-interacting gas of $^{87}$Rb atoms above quantum degeneracy. Coherent spin-rotating interactions are modified by applying a small linear effective magnetic field that varies the local Larmor precession. Adding small linear effective magnetic fields with gradients that oppose the initial...
Ultra-cold atomic ensembles have enabled experimental studies of few and many-body quantum phenomena including topological insulators, many-body pairing phenomena, and superfluidity. The use of ultra-cold molecular ensembles is expected to provide access to even richer phenomena than atoms due to their complex internal structure. Cold molecules are also key to studying and understanding...