RUI: Experiments with Bose-Einstein Condensates

Amherst College, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). At extremely low temperatures, the properties of physical systems can manifest unusual and striking behavior. One such behavior is superfluidity, which is a coordinated fluid flow without any viscosity. The fundamental properties of collisions between atoms are also unusual at low temperatures; for instance, every collision between a pair of ultracold atoms in a superfluid is in some sense ``head-on.'' This project examines the relationship between the individual collisions between pairs of atoms within the superfluid and the collective behavior of the superfluid itself. The former requires that the interaction between individual atoms must be understood and well-controlled. The latter requires an understanding and detection of the dynamical behavior of a superfluid in response to external influences, such as rotation. Both of these requirements can be met within a dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensate, an extremely cold form of matter first observed in 1995 (and for which observation the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2001). Recent experimental innovations in imaging and controlling interatomic interactions, developed in the principal investigator's laboratory and elsewhere, will be extended and applied to systems of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates. Further experimental work involves an examination of the fundamental physical processes involved in the interaction between two distinct superfluids. This cutting-edge scientific research is carried out at an undergraduate college, providing meaningful research opportunities to tomorrow's young scientists at earlier stages of their careers than is typically possible at large research universities. These opportunities are available to an unusually wide pool of potential future scientists as a result of the leadership the college has demonstrated in enhancing socioeconomic diversity. Experience also teaches that research in fundamental physics leads inevitably to greater understanding of more complex processes, and thence to successful application of acquired knowledge to specific problems throughout science and engineering. The experimental research explored here, particularly with regard to its focus on interatomic interactions in double condensates, may lead to improvements in rotational and magnetic field sensors, atomic clocks, and the development of neutral-atom quantum computers.