This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This CAREER award supports an integrated research and education program that emphasizes the theoretical study of the magnetic and spin properties of ultracold atomic gases. Despite being perhaps the most novel aspect of the alkali Bose condensates, the field of spinor condensates has been stymied in recent years by the gap between the condensed matter physics language of order parameters and symmetry breaking, and the experimental tools of atomic physics. The approach proposed here will bridge that gap by developing the theory in harmony with experiment, simultaneously advancing our understanding of these fascinating systems while providing crucial insight into future developments
The phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation effectively amplifies one-particle quantum effects to the thermodynamic level. The spontaneous coherence of spatially separated macroscopic condensates, which leads to interference fringes when the two clouds overlap, is one example of this type behavior. If instead of spatially separate gases, we consider atoms in different spin states then the analogous effect can be viewed as spontaneous magnetic order. The final state of the gas is selected by the details of the spin-dependent interparticle interactions, resulting in a phase diagram of novel magnetic orders that grows in complexity with increasing spin. Recent experiments have demonstrated this spontaneous symmetry breaking in the magnetic ordering of ultracold gases, as well as the effect of the magnetic dipole interactions on the resulting states. .
The educational component of this award will expose undergraduate physics majors to the subject of ultracold gases, one of the most exciting areas of physics today. The educational potential of this branch of physics is enormous, both because of the excitement surrounding the field of ultracold atoms and because it offers an accessible way of understanding many advanced concepts in modern physics. A new textbook will be written on collective phenomena in ultracold systems, and a new course will be developed on this topic at the University of Virginia., providing a much needed introduction to the study of collective phenomena in ultracold systems. The course will build on the university?s strengths in atomic physics, and revitalize the teaching of many-body physics.
NONTECHNICAL SUMMARY This CAREER award supports an integrated theoretical research and education program to study the interplay of Bose-Einstein condensation and magnetism in atoms trapped by beams of laser light and cooled down to temperatures of millionths of a degree on the absolute scale of temperature. Ultracold atoms in a Bose-einstein condensate act in concert and behave like they have melded into a superatom. This superatom state enables experimentalists to explore quantum mechanical effects that ordinarily occur on the tiniest length scales, e.g. those of a single atom, on easily accessible length scales. The PI?s research focuses on the magnetic properties of atoms and the kinds of magnetism that can appear in the superatom state. The study of these effects may have impact on our understanding of magnetism in materials. It will likely lead to the discovery of new phenomena and new states of matter, some of which may occur in materials as well. These new states of matter exhibiting quantum mechanical behavior may be useful in developing a new paradigm for computing and may lead to new device technologies based on manipulating quantum mechanical states.
The educational component of this award will expose undergraduate physics majors to the subject of ultracold gases, one of the most exciting areas of physics today. The educational potential of this branch of physics is enormous, both because of the excitement surrounding the field of ultracold atoms and because it offers an accessible way of understanding many advanced concepts in modern physics. A new textbook will be written on collective phenomena in ultracold systems, and a new course will be developed on this topic at the University of Virginia., providing a much needed introduction to the study of collective phenomena in ultracold systems. The course will build on the university's strengths in atomic physics, and revitalize how the physics of systems of many interacting particles, like atoms and electrons in materials, are taught.
