27 research outputs found
Dynamical Realization of Macroscopic Superposition States of Cold Bosons in a Tilted Double Well
We present exact expressions for the quantum sloshing of Bose-Einstein
condensates in a tilted two-well potential. Tunneling is suppressed by a small
potential difference between wells, or tilt. However, tunneling resonances
occur for critical values of the tilt when the barrier is high. At resonance,
tunneling times on the order of 10-100 ms are possible. Furthermore, such
tilted resonances lead to a dynamical scheme for creating few-body NOON-like
macroscopic superposition states which are protected by the many body
wavefunction against potential fluctuations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, final version, only minor changes from previous
arXiv versio
Measurement of dynamic Stark polarizabilities by analyzing spectral lineshapes of forbidden transitions
We present a measurement of the dynamic scalar and tensor polarizabilities of
the excited state 3D1 in atomic ytterbium. The polarizabilities were measured
by analyzing the spectral lineshape of the 408-nm 1S0->3D1 transition driven by
a standing wave of resonant light in the presence of static electric and
magnetic fields. Due to the interaction of atoms with the standing wave, the
lineshape has a characteristic polarizability-dependent distortion. A
theoretical model was used to simulate the lineshape and determine a
combination of the polarizabilities of the ground and excited states by fitting
the model to experimental data. This combination was measured with a 13%
uncertainty, only 3% of which is due to uncertainty in the simulation and
fitting procedure. The scalar and tensor polarizabilities of the state 3D1 were
measured for the first time by comparing two different combinations of
polarizabilities. We show that this technique can be applied to similar atomic
systems.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR
Control of atomic currents using a quantum stirring device
We propose a BEC stirring device which can be regarded as the incorporation
of a quantum pump into a closed circuit: it produces a DC circulating current
in response to a cyclic adiabatic change of two control parameters of an
optical trap. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept and point out that
such device can be utilized in order to probe the interatomic interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, uses epl2.cls, revised versio
Atomic parity violation in 0-to-0 two-photon transitions
We present a method for measuring atomic parity violation in the absence of
static external electric and magnetic fields. Such measurements can be achieved
by observing the interference of parity conserving and parity violating
two-photon transition amplitudes between energy eigenstates of zero electronic
angular momentum. General expressions for induced two-photon transition
amplitudes are derived. The signal-to-noise ratio of a two-photon scheme using
the 6s^2 1S0 to 6s6p 3P0 transition in ytterbium is estimated.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Macroscopic superposition states of ultracold bosons in a double-well potential
We present a thorough description of the physical regimes for ultracold
bosons in double wells, with special attention paid to macroscopic
superpositions (MSs). We use a generalization of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick
Hamiltonian of up to eight single particle modes to study these MSs, solving
the Hamiltonian with a combination of numerical exact diagonalization and
high-order perturbation theory. The MS is between left and right potential
wells; the extreme case with all atoms simultaneously located in both wells and
in only two modes is the famous NOON state, but our approach encompasses much
more general MSs. Use of more single particle modes brings dimensionality into
the problem, allows us to set hard limits on the use of the original two-mode
LMG model commonly treated in the literature, and also introduces a new mixed
Josephson-Fock regime. Higher modes introduce angular degrees of freedom and MS
states with different angular properties.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Mini-review prepared for the special
issue of Frontiers of Physics "Recent Progresses on Quantum Dynamics of
Ultracold Atoms and Future Quantum Technologies", edited by Profs. Lee, Ueda,
and Drummon