Strongly Interacting Quantum Mixtures of Ultracold Atoms

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This experimental research program is aimed at the study of strongly interacting mixtures of bosonic and fermionic gases, with the goal of realizing novel forms of quantum matter. The primary objective is the creation of a mixture of lithium-6 and potassium-40 atoms, a promising candidate for the observation of fermionic superfluidity with unlike fermions. This system finds its analogies for example in nuclear matter, where protons and neutrons form superfluid pairs, and in the dense quark matter inside a neutron star. The precise control over the properties of atomic gases makes them ideal model systems for many-body physics. The experiment will allow setting the gas under rotation, so that atoms will mimic the behavior of electrons in a magnetic field, a subject of great technological importance. Interactions between the atoms can be freely tuned via Feshbach scattering resonances. This offers the prospect of binding two unlike atoms into heteronuclear molecules and realizing their Bose-Einstein condensation. In the ground state, these molecules will have a large electric dipole moment, which may allow the creation of a quantum fluid with anisotropic interactions. This program will test and thereby advance current theories of complex matter and is thus relevant to diverse fields of physics, from condensed matter physics and material science to nuclear physics and astrophysics. The work will provide research training for students, thereby combining research with education objectives.