Superradiant light scattering from a moving Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the interaction of a moving BEC with a far detuned laser beam. Superradiant Rayleigh scattering arises from the spontaneous formation of a matter-wave grating due to the interference of two wavepackets with different momenta. The system is described by the CARL-BEC model which is a generalization of the Gross-Pitaevskii model to include the self-consistent evolution of the scattered field. The experiment gives evidence of a damping of the matter-wave grating which depends on the initial velocity of the condensate. We describe this damping in terms of a phase-diffusion decoherence process, in good agreement with the experimental results

Optically-induced lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving lattice

We report the experimental observation of a lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving 1D optical lattice. The effect of the periodic potential can be described by an effective mass dependent on the condensate quasi-momentum. By changing the velocity of the atoms in the frame of the optical lattice we induce a focusing of the condensate along the lattice direction. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions of an effective 1D theoretical model. Besides, a precise band spectroscopy of the system is carried out by looking at the real-space propagation of the atomic wavepacket in the optical lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; minor changes applied and typos corrected; a new paragraph added; some references updated; journal reference adde

Collective excitations of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a 1D optical lattice

We study low-lying collective modes of a horizontally elongated 87Rb condensate produced in a 3D magnetic harmonic trap with the addition of a 1D periodic potential which is provided by a laser standing-wave along the horizontal axis. While the transverse breathing mode results unperturbed, quadrupole and dipole oscillations along the optical lattice are strongly modified. Precise measurements of the collective mode frequencies at different height of the optical barriers provide a stringent test of the theoretical model recently introduced [M.Kraemer et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 180404 (2002)].Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Severe impact of Covid-19 pandemic on breast cancer care in Italy: a senonetwork national survey

Italy was the first Western country hit by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with over 246,000 documented cases and more than 35,000 deaths related to the infection as of July 26, 2020. The first documented case in Italy was reported on February 18, 2020, introducing a rapid sequence of events. A few towns near Milan and in Veneto were locked down soon thereafter. Finally, the entire country was locked down on March 9, 2020, with a national quarantine, which has severely limited the movement of the entire population except for documented work and health circumstances. Since then, many hospitals have restrained non-emergency admissions and ambulatory services, particularly for non-oncologic patients. Despite many medical and scientific reports on the current pandemic, little is known on the effect and magnitude of this health emergency on the care of patients with breast cancer

Expansion of a coherent array of Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the properties of a coherent array containing about 200 Bose-Einstein condensates produced in a far detuned 1D optical lattice. The density profile of the gas, imaged after releasing the trap, provides information about the coherence of the ground-state wavefunction. The measured atomic distribution is characterized by interference peaks. The time evolution of the peaks, their relative population as well as the radial size of the expanding cloud are in good agreement with the predictions of theory. The 2D nature of the trapped condensates and the conditions required to observe the effects of coherence are also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Landau damping: instability mechanism of superfluid Bose gases moving in optical lattices

We investigate Landau damping of Bogoliubov excitations in a dilute Bose gas moving in an optical lattice at finite temperatures. Using a 1D tight-binding model, we explicitly obtain the Landau damping rate, the sign of which determines the stability of the condensate. We find that the sign changes at a certain condensate velocity, which is exactly the same as the critical velocity determined by the Landau criterion of superfluidity. This coincidence of the critical velocities reveals the microscopic mechanism of the Landau instability. This instability mechanism is also consistent with the recent experiment suggesting that a thermal cloud plays a crucial role in breakdown of superfluids, since the thermal cloud is also vital in the Landau damping process. We also examine the possibility of simultaneous disappearance of all damping processes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Insulating Behavior of a Trapped Ideal Fermi Gas

We investigate theoretically and experimentally the center-of-mass motion of an ideal Fermi gas in a combined periodic and harmonic potential. We find a crossover from a conducting to an insulating regime as the Fermi energy moves from the first Bloch band into the bandgap of the lattice. The conducting regime is characterized by an oscillation of the cloud about the potential minimum, while in the insulating case the center of mass remains on one side of the potential.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Single-molecule study for a graphene-based nano-position sensor

In this study we lay the groundwork for a graphene-based fundamental ruler at the nanoscale. It relies on the efficient energy-transfer mechanism between single quantum emitters and low-doped graphene monolayers. Our experiments, conducted with dibenzoterrylene (DBT) molecules, allow going beyond ensemble analysis due to the emitter photo-stability and brightness. A quantitative characterization of the fluorescence decay-rate modification is presented and compared to a simple model, showing agreement with the $d^{-4}$ dependence, a genuine manifestation of a dipole interacting with a 2D material. With DBT molecules, we can estimate a potential uncertainty in position measurements as low as 5nm in the range below 30nm

Loss and revival of phase coherence in a Bose-Einstein condensate moving through an optical lattice

We investigate the phase coherence of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate that undergoes a dynamical superfluid-insulator transition in the presence of a one-dimensional optical lattice. We study the evolution of the condensate after a sudden displacement of the harmonic trapping potential by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and comparing the results with the prediction of two effective 1D models. We show that, owing to the 3D nature of the system, the breakdown of the superfluid current above a critical displacement is not associated to a sharp transition, but there exists a range of displacements for which the condensate can recover a certain degree of coherence. We also discuss the implications on the interference pattern after the ballistic expansion as measured in recent experiments at LENS.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure