1,939 research outputs found
Measurement of the interaction strength in a Bose-Fermi mixture with 87Rb and 40K
A quantum degenerate, dilute gas mixture of bosonic and fermionic atoms was
produced using 87Rb and 40K. The onset of degeneracy was confirmed by observing
the spatial distribution of the gases after time-of-flight expansion. Further,
the magnitude of the interspecies scattering length between the doubly spin
polarized states of 87Rb and 40K, |a_RbK|, was determined from
cross-dimensional thermal relaxation. The uncertainty in this collision
measurement was greatly reduced by taking the ratio of interspecies and
intraspecies relaxation rates, yielding |a_RbK| = 250 +/- 30 a_0, which is a
lower value than what was reported in [M. Modugno et al., Phys. Rev. A 68,
043626 (2003)]. Using the value for |a_RbK| reported here, current T=0 theory
would predict a threshold for mechanical instability that is inconsistent with
the experimentally observed onset for sudden loss of fermions in [G. Modugno et
al., Science 297, 2240 (2002)].Comment: RevTeX4 + 4 eps figures; Replaced with published versio
Observation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances in a Bose-Fermi Mixture
Three magnetic-field induced heteronuclear Feshbach resonances were
identified in collisions between bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K atoms in their
absolute ground states. Strong inelastic loss from an optically trapped mixture
was observed at the resonance positions of 492, 512, and 543 +/- 2 G. The
magnetic-field locations of these resonances place a tight constraint on the
triplet and singlet cross-species scattering lengths, yielding -281 +/- 15 Bohr
and -54 +/- 12 Bohr, respectively. The width of the loss feature at 543 G is
3.7 +/- 1.5 G wide; this broad Feshbach resonance should enable experimental
control of the interspecies interactions.Comment: revtex4 + 5 EPS figure
Enhancing capacity of coherent optical information storage and transfer in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Coherent optical information storage capacity of an atomic Bose-Einstein
condensate is examined. Theory of slow light propagation in atomic clouds is
generalized to short pulse regime by taking into account group velocity
dispersion. It is shown that the number of stored pulses in the condensate can
be optimized for a particular coupling laser power, temperature and interatomic
interaction strength. Analytical results are derived for semi-ideal model of
the condensate using effective uniform density zone approximation. Detailed
numerical simulations are also performed. It is found that axial density
profile of the condensate protects the pulse against the group velocity
dispersion. Furthermore, taking into account finite radial size of the
condensate, multi-mode light propagation in atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is
investigated. The number of modes that can be supported by a condensate is
found. Single mode condition is determined as a function of experimentally
accessible parameters including trap size, temperature, condensate number
density and scattering length. Quantum coherent atom-light interaction schemes
are proposed for enhancing multi-mode light propagation effects.Comment: 12pages. Laser Physics, in pres
Cerenkov-like radiation in a binary Schr{\"o}dinger flow past an obstacle
We consider the dynamics of two coupled miscible Bose-Einstein condensates,
when an obstacle is dragged through them. The existence of two different speeds
of sound provides the possibility for three dynamical regimes: when both
components are subcritical, we do not observe nucleation of coherent
structures; when both components are supercritical they both form dark solitons
in one dimension (1D) and vortices or rotating vortex dipoles in two dimensions
(2D); in the intermediate regime, we observe the nucleation of a structure in
the form of a dark-antidark soliton in 1D; subcritical component; the 2D analog
of such a structure, a vortex-lump, is also observed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys Rev
Suppression and enhancement of impurity scattering in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Impurity atoms propagating at variable velocities through a trapped
Bose-Einstein condensate were produced using a stimulated Raman transition. The
redistribution of momentum by collisions between the impurity atoms and the
stationary condensate was observed in a time-of-flight analysis. The
collisional cross section was dramatically reduced when the velocity of the
impurities was reduced below the speed of sound of the condensate, in agreement
with the Landau criterion for superfluidity. For large numbers of impurity
atoms, we observed an enhancement of atomic collisions due to bosonic
stimulation. This enhancement is analogous to optical superradiance.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Self-Binding Transition in Bose Condensates with Laser-Induced ``Gravitation''
In our recent publication (D. O'Dell, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5687
(2000)) we proposed a scheme for electromagnetically generating a self-bound
Bose-Einstein condensate with 1/r attractive interactions: the analog of a Bose
star. Here we focus upon the conditions neccessary to observe the transition
from external trapping to self-binding. This transition becomes manifest in a
sharp reduction of the condensate radius and its dependence on the laser
intensity rather that the trap potential.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures: slightly enhanced text: more explanatio
A Statistical Estimator for Determining the Limits of Contemporary and Historic Phenology
Climate change affects not just where species are found, but also when species’ key life-history events occur—their phenology. Measuring such changes in timing is often hampered by a reliance on biased survey data: surveys identify that an event has taken place (for example, the flower is in bloom), but not when that event happened (for example, the flower bloomed yesterday). Here, we show that this problem can be circumvented using statistical estimators, which can provide accurate and unbiased estimates from sparsely sampled observations. We demonstrate that such methods can resolve an ongoing debate about the relative timings of the onset and cessation of flowering, and allow us to place modern observations reliably within the context of the vast wealth of historical data that reside in herbaria, museum collections, and written records. We also analyse large-scale citizen science data from the United States National Phenology Network and reveal not just earlier but also potentially more variable flowering in recent years. Evidence for greater variability through time is important because increases in variation are characteristic of systems approaching a state change
How to observe the Efimov effect
We propose to observe the Efimov effect experimentally by applying an
external electric field on atomic three-body systems. We first derive the
lowest order effective two-body interaction for two spin zero atoms in the
field. Then we solve the three-body problem and search for the extreme
spatially extended Efimov states. We use helium trimers as an illustrative
numerical example and estimate the necessary field strength to be less than 2.7
V/angstrom.Comment: 4 pages, 2 postscript figures, psfig.sty, revte
Eliminating the mean-field shift in multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates
We demonstrate that the nonlinear mean-field shift in a multi-component
Bose-Einstein condensate may be eliminated by controlling the two-body
interaction coefficients. This modification is achieved by, e.g., suitably
engineering the environment of the condensate. We consider as an example the
case of a two-component condensate in a tightly confining atom waveguide.
Modification of the atom-atom interactions is then achieved by varying
independently the transverse wave function of the two components. Eliminating
the density dependent phase shift in a high-density atomic beam has important
applications in atom interferometry and precision measurement
Vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate confined by an optical lattice
We investigate the dynamics of vortices in repulsive Bose-Einstein
condensates in the presence of an optical lattice (OL) and a parabolic magnetic
trap. The dynamics is sensitive to the phase of the OL potential relative to
the magnetic trap, and depends less on the OL strength. For the cosinusoidal OL
potential, a local minimum is generated at the trap's center, creating a stable
equilibrium for the vortex, while in the case of the sinusoidal potential, the
vortex is expelled from the center, demonstrating spiral motion. Cases where
the vortex is created far from the trap's center are also studied, revealing
slow outward-spiraling drift. Numerical results are explained in an analytical
form by means of a variational approximation. Finally, motivated by a discrete
model (which is tantamount to the case of the strong OL lattice), we present a
novel type of vortex consisting of two pairs of anti-phase solitons.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
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