Diffraction of ultra-cold fermions by quantized light fields: Standing versus traveling waves

We study the diffraction of quantum degenerate fermionic atoms off of quantized light fields in an optical cavity. We compare the case of a linear cavity with standing wave modes to that of a ring cavity with two counter-propagating traveling wave modes. It is found that the dynamics of the atoms strongly depends on the quantization procedure for the cavity field. For standing waves, no correlations develop between the cavity field and the atoms. Consequently, standing wave Fock states yield the same results as a classical standing wave field while coherent states give rise to a collapse and revivals in the scattering of the atoms. In contrast, for traveling waves the scattering results in quantum entanglement of the radiation field and the atoms. This leads to a collapse and revival of the scattering probability even for Fock states. The Pauli Exclusion Principle manifests itself as an additional dephasing of the scattering probability

Testing the Dirac equation

The dynamical equations which are basic for the description of the dynamics of quantum felds in arbitrary space--time geometries, can be derived from the requirements of a unique deterministic evolution of the quantum fields, the superposition principle, a finite propagation speed, and probability conservation. We suggest and describe observations and experiments which are able to test the unique deterministic evolution and analyze given experimental data from which restrictions of anomalous terms violating this basic principle can be concluded. One important point is, that such anomalous terms are predicted from loop gravity as well as from string theories. Most accurate data can be obtained from future astrophysical observations. Also, laboratory tests like spectroscopy give constraints on the anomalous terms.Comment: 11 pages. to appear in: C. L\"ammerzahl, C.W.F. Everitt, and F.W. Hehl (eds.): Gyros, Clocks, Interferometers...: Testing Relativistic Gravity in Space, Lecture Notes in Physics 562, Springer 200

Note on the Existence of Hydrogen Atoms in Higher Dimensional Euclidean Spaces

The question of whether hydrogen atoms can exist or not in spaces with a number of dimensions greater than 3 is revisited, considering higher dimensional Euclidean spaces. Previous results which lead to different answers to this question are briefly reviewed. The scenario where not only the kinematical term of Schr\"odinger equation is generalized to a D-dimensional space but also the electric charge conservation law (expressed here by the Poisson law) should actually remains valid is assumed. In this case, the potential energy in the Schr\"odinger equation goes like 1/r^{D-2}. The lowest quantum mechanical bound states and the corresponding wave functions are determined by applying the Numerov numerical method to solve Schr\"odinger's eigenvalue equation. States for different angular momentum quantum number (l = 0; 1) and dimensionality (5 \leq D \leq 10) are considered. One is lead to the result that hydrogen atoms in higher dimensions could actually exist. For the same range of the dimensionality D, the energy eigenvalues and wave functions are determined for l = 1. The most probable distance between the electron and the nucleus are then computed as a function of D showing the possibility of tiny bound states.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Quantum three-body system in D dimensions

The independent eigenstates of the total orbital angular momentum operators for a three-body system in an arbitrary D-dimensional space are presented by the method of group theory. The Schr\"{o}dinger equation is reduced to the generalized radial equations satisfied by the generalized radial functions with a given total orbital angular momentum denoted by a Young diagram $[\mu,\nu,0,...,0]$ for the SO(D) group. Only three internal variables are involved in the functions and equations. The number of both the functions and the equations for the given angular momentum is finite and equal to $(\mu-\nu+1)$.Comment: 16 pages, no figure, RevTex, Accepted by J. Math. Phy