Asymptotic behaviour of a rapidly rotating fluid with random stationary surface stress

The goal of this paper is to describe in mathematical terms the effect on the ocean circulation of a random stationary wind stress at the surface of the ocean. In order to avoid singular behaviour, non-resonance hypotheses are introduced, which ensure that the time frequencies of the wind-stress are different from that of the Earth rotation. We prove a convergence result for a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes-Coriolis system in a bounded domain, in the asymptotic of fast rotation and vanishing vertical viscosity, and we exhibit some random and stationary boundary layer profiles. At last, an average equation is derived for the limit system in the case of the non-resonant torus.Comment: 45 page

Loading of a cold atomic beam into a magnetic guide

We demonstrate experimentally the continuous and pulsed loading of a slow and cold atomic beam into a magnetic guide. The slow beam is produced using a vapor loaded laser trap, which ensures two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping, as well as cooling by a moving molasses along the third direction. It provides a continuous flux larger than $10^9$ atoms/s with an adjustable mean velocity ranging from 0.3 to 3 m/s, and with longitudinal and transverse temperatures smaller than $100 \mu$K. Up to $3 10^8$ atoms/s are injected into the magnetic guide and subsequently guided over a distance of 40 cm.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication to EPJ

Experimental tests of Bell's inequalities: A first-hand account by Alain Aspect

On 04 October 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the Nobel Prize for Physics of 2022 was awarded jointly to Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science". What follows is an interview of Alain Aspect, conducted by Bill Phillips and Jean Dalibard, during the summer of 2022, and completed not long before the announcement of the Nobel Prize. The subject matter is essentially that for which the Nobel Prize was awarded.Comment: Accepted for publication in the topical issue "Quantum Optics of Light and Matter" of EPJD, Edts. D. Cl\'ement, P. Grangier and J. Thywisse

Reconstruction of Rb-Rb inter-atomic potential from ultracold Bose-gas collision

Scattering phase shifts obtained from 87Rb Bose-gas collision experiments are used to reconstruct effective potentials resulting, self-consistently, in the same scattering events observed in the experiments at a particular energy. We have found that the interaction strength close to the origin suddenly changes from repulsion to attraction when the collision energy crosses, from below, the l=2 shape resonance position at E = 275 mikroK. This observation may be utilized in outlining future Bose-gas collision experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

High-Resolution Magnetometry with a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

We demonstrate a precision magnetic microscope based on direct imaging of the Larmor precession of a $^{87}$Rb spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. This magnetometer attains a field sensitivity of 8.3 pT/Hz$^{1/2}$ over a measurement area of 120 $\mu$m$^2$, an improvement over the low-frequency field sensitivity of modern SQUID magnetometers. The corresponding atom shot-noise limited sensitivity is estimated to be 0.15 pT/Hz$^{1/2}$ for unity duty cycle measurement. The achieved phase sensitivity is close to the atom shot-noise limit suggesting possibilities of spatially resolved spin-squeezed magnetometry. This magnetometer marks a significant application of degenerate atomic gases to metrology

Self-trapping of impurities in Bose-Einstein condensates: Strong attractive and repulsive coupling

We study the interaction-induced localization -- the so-called self-trapping -- of a neutral impurity atom immersed in a homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Based on a Hartree description of the BEC we show that -- unlike repulsive impurities -- attractive impurities have a singular ground state in 3d and shrink to a point-like state in 2d as the coupling approaches a critical value. Moreover, we find that the density of the BEC increases markedly in the vicinity of attractive impurities in 1d and 2d, which strongly enhances inelastic collisions between atoms in the BEC. These collisions result in a loss of BEC atoms and possibly of the localized impurity itself.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Evaporative Cooling of a Guided Rubidium Atomic Beam

We report on our recent progress in the manipulation and cooling of a magnetically guided, high flux beam of $^{87}{\rm Rb}$ atoms. Typically $7\times 10^9$ atoms per second propagate in a magnetic guide providing a transverse gradient of 800 G/cm, with a temperature $\sim550$ $\mu$K, at an initial velocity of 90 cm/s. The atoms are subsequently slowed down to $\sim 60$ cm/s using an upward slope. The relatively high collision rate (5 s$^{-1}$) allows us to start forced evaporative cooling of the beam, leading to a reduction of the beam temperature by a factor of ~4, and a ten-fold increase of the on-axis phase-space density.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure