25 research outputs found
Superluminal Signals: Causal Loop Paradoxes Revisited
Recent results demonstrating superluminal group velocities and tachyonic
dispersion relations reopen the question of superluminal signals and causal
loop paradoxes. The sense in which superluminal signals are permitted is
explained in terms of pulse reshaping, and the self-consistent behavior which
prevents causal loop paradoxes is illustrated by an explicit example.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Which group velocity of light in a dispersive medium?
The interaction between a light pulse, traveling in air, and a generic
linear, non-absorbing and dispersive structure is analyzed. It is shown that
energy conservation imposes a constraint between the group velocities of the
transmitted and reflected light pulses. It follows that the two fields
propagate with group velocities depending on the dispersive properties of the
environment (air) and on the transmission properties of the optical structure,
and are one faster and the other slower than the incident field. In other
words, the group velocity of a light pulse in a dispersive medium is
reminiscent of previous interactions. One example is discussed in detail.Comment: To be submitted on PR
Scattering of light and atoms in a Fermi-Dirac gas with BCS pairing
We theoretically study the optical properties of a Fermi-Dirac gas in the
presence of a superfluid state. We calculate the leading quantum-statistical
corrections to the standard column density result of the electric
susceptibility. We also consider the Bragg diffraction of atoms by means of
light-stimulated transitions of photons between two intersecting laser beams.
Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing between atoms in different internal levels
magnifies incoherent scattering processes. The absorption linewidth of a
Fermi-Dirac gas is broadened and shifted. Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing
introduces a collisional local-field shift that may dramatically dominate the
Lorentz-Lorenz shift. For the case of the Bragg spectroscopy the static
structure function may be significantly increased due to superfluidity in the
nearforward scattering.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; to appear in PR
A Knob for Changing Light Propagation from Subluminal to Superluminal
We show how the application of a coupling field connecting the two lower
metastable states of a lambda-system can produce a variety of new results on
the propagation of a weak electromagnetic pulse. In principle the light
propagation can be changed from subluminal to superluminal. The negative group
index results from the regions of anomalous dispersion and gain in
susceptibility.Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, typed in RevTeX, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Feshbach resonances in a quasi-2D atomic gas
Strongly confining an ultracold atomic gas in one direction to create a
quasi-2D system alters the scattering properties of this gas. We investigate
the effects of confinement on Feshbach scattering resonances and show that
strong confinement results in a shift in the position of the Feshbach resonance
as a function of the magnetic field. This shift, as well as the change of the
width of the resonance, are computed. We find that the resonance is strongly
damped in the thermal gas, but in the condensate the resonance remains sharp
due to many-body effects. We introduce a 2D model system, suited for the study
of resonant superfluidity, and having the same scattering properties as the
tightly confined real system near a Feshbach resonance. Exact relations are
derived between measurable quantities and the model parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Pseudopotential model of ultracold atomic collisions in quasi-one- and two-dimensional traps
We describe a model for s-wave collisions between ground state atoms in
optical lattices, considering especially the limits of quasi-one and two
dimensional axisymmetric harmonic confinement. When the atomic interactions are
modelled by an s-wave Fermi-pseudopotential, the relative motion energy
eigenvalues can easily be obtained. The results show that except for a bound
state, the trap eigenvalues are consistent with one- and two- dimensional
scattering with renormalized scattering amplitudes. For absolute scattering
lengths large compared with the tightest trap width, our model predicts a novel
bound state of low energy and nearly-isotropic wavefunction extending on the
order of the tightest trap width.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Interferometric detection of a single vortex in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate
Using two radio frequency pulses separated in time we perform an amplitude
division interference experiment on a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate. The
presence of a quantized vortex, which is nucleated by stirring the condensate
with a laser beam, is revealed by a dislocation in the fringe pattern.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Superluminal optical pulse propagation in nonlinear coherent media
The propagation of light-pulse with negative group-velocity in a nonlinear
medium is studied theoretically. We show that the necessary conditions for
these effects to be observable are realized in a three-level -system
interacting with a linearly polarized laser beam in the presence of a static
magnetic field. In low power regime, when all other nonlinear processes are
negligible, the light-induced Zeeman coherence cancels the resonant absorption
of the medium almost completely, but preserves the dispersion anomalous and
very high. As a result, a superluminal light pulse propagation can be observed
in the sense that the peak of the transmitted pulse exits the medium before the
peak of the incident pulse enters. There is no violation of causality and
energy conservation. Moreover, the superluminal effects are prominently
manifested in the reshaping of pulse, which is caused by the
intensity-dependent pulse velocity. Unlike the shock wave formation in a
nonlinear medium with normal dispersion, here, the self-steepening of the pulse
trailing edge takes place due to the fact that the more intense parts of the
pulse travel slower. The predicted effect can be easily observed in the well
known schemes employed for studying of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. The
upper bound of sample length is found from the criterion that the pulse
self-steepening and group-advance time are observable without pulse distortion
caused by the group-velocity dispersion.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
Probing semiclassical analogue gravity in Bose--Einstein condensates with widely tunable interactions
Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) have recently been the subject of
considerable study as possible analogue models of general relativity. In
particular it was shown that the propagation of phase perturbations in a BEC
can, under certain conditions, closely mimic the dynamics of scalar quantum
fields in curved spacetimes. In two previous articles [gr-qc/0110036,
gr-qc/0305061] we noted that a varying scattering length in the BEC corresponds
to a varying speed of light in the ``effective metric''. Recent experiments
have indeed achieved a controlled tuning of the scattering length in Rubidium
85. In this article we shall discuss the prospects for the use of this
particular experimental effect to test some of the predictions of semiclassical
quantum gravity, for instance, particle production in an expanding universe. We
stress that these effects are generally much larger than the Hawking radiation
expected from causal horizons, and so there are much better chances for their
detection in the near future.Comment: 18 pages; uses revtex4. V2: Added brief discussion of "Bose-Nova"
phenomenon, and appropriate reference
Quantum Computing with Atomic Josephson Junction Arrays
We present a quantum computing scheme with atomic Josephson junction arrays.
The system consists of a small number of atoms with three internal states and
trapped in a far-off resonant optical lattice. Raman lasers provide the
"Josephson" tunneling, and the collision interaction between atoms represent
the "capacitive" couplings between the modes. The qubit states are collective
states of the atoms with opposite persistent currents. This system is closely
analogous to the superconducting flux qubit. Single qubit quantum logic gates
are performed by modulating the Raman couplings, while two-qubit gates result
from a tunnel coupling between neighboring wells. Readout is achieved by tuning
the Raman coupling adiabatically between the Josephson regime to the Rabi
regime, followed by a detection of atoms in internal electronic states.
Decoherence mechanisms are studied in detail promising a high ratio between the
decoherence time and the gate operation time.Comment: 7 figure