Atoms that interact strongly at low energy exhibit universal behavior that does not depend on details of atomic physics. The development of methods for trapping atoms, cooling them to ultralow temperatures, and manipulating their interaction strengths has made universality of practical importance for controlling atoms and molecules. The ultimate goal of this project is to predict the behavior of few-body and many-body systems consisting of strongly-interacting ultracold atoms and the weakly-bound molecules formed by these atoms. Although this project is focussed primarily on ultracold atoms, universality ensures that the results will also be applicable to other fields of science, including nuclear physics, high energy physics, condensed matter physics, and astrophysics.
This award will be used primarily to support a graduate student who will be working on this research project. The training received by the graduate student in carrying out the research will contribute to the building of a diverse scientific workforce. The mix of analytical and numerical computation required by this project is excellent preparation for both academic and industrial research.
