Simulations of Sisyphus cooling including multiple excited states

We extend the theory for laser cooling in a near-resonant optical lattice to include multiple excited hyperfine states. Simulations are performed treating the external degrees of freedom of the atom, i.e., position and momentum, classically, while the internal atomic states are treated quantum mechanically, allowing for arbitrary superpositions. Whereas theoretical treatments including only a single excited hyperfine state predict that the temperature should be a function of lattice depth only, except close to resonance, experiments have shown that the minimum temperature achieved depends also on the detuning from resonance of the lattice light. Our results resolve this discrepancy.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Internal Structure of Ariebreen, Spitsbergen, from radio-echo sounding data

Ariebreen (77º 01' N, 15º 29' E) is a small valley glacier (ca. 0.36 km2 in August 2007) located at Hornsund, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, ca. 2.5 km to the west of Hornsund Polish Polar Station. Ariebreen, like many other Svalbard glaciers, has experienced a significant recession at least since the 1930s, and most likely since the end of Little Ice Age (LIA) in the early part of the 20th century. Moreover, the thinning rate of western Svalbard glaciers has shown an acceleration during the most recent decades. Ariebreen follows this general retreat pattern, as is shown in another contribution to this workshop (Petlicki et al., 2008). Most investigated glaciers in Hornsund area, in the neighbourhood of Ariebreen, are known to be polythermal (e.g. Hansbreen and Werenskioldbreen, Pälli et al., 2003). It has been suggested (Macheret et al., 1992) that the thinning of polythermal glaciers may result in a switch to cold thermal structure under appropriate conditions. The strong thinning experienced by Ariebreen during the recent decades makes it an ideal candidate to undergo such change. The main aims of this contribution are to understand the internal structure of Ariebreen, in particular, its hydrothermal regime, and to determine whether the glacier is undergoing or has already experienced a transition from polythermal to cold structure. The main tool to accomplish this will be the analysis of radio-echo sounding data

A nonadiabatic semi-classical method for dynamics of atoms in optical lattices

We develop a semi-classical method to simulate the motion of atoms in a dissipative optical lattice. Our method treats the internal states of the atom quantum mechanically, including all nonadiabatic couplings, while position and momentum are treated as classical variables. We test our method in the one-dimensional case. Excellent agreement with fully quantum mechanical simulations is found. Our results are much more accurate than those of earlier semi-classical methods based on the adiabatic approximation.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

Experimental measurement of efficiency and transport coherence of a cold atom Brownian motor in optical lattices

The rectification of noise into directed movement or useful energy is utilized by many different systems. The peculiar nature of the energy source and conceptual differences between such Brownian motor systems makes a characterization of the performance far from straightforward. In this work, where the Brownian motor consists of atoms interacting with dissipative optical lattices, we adopt existing theory and present experimental measurements for both the efficiency and the transport coherence. We achieve up to 0.3% for the efficiency and 0.01 for the P\'eclet number

Four-boson scale near a Feshbach resonance

We show that an independent four-body momentum scale $\mu_{(4)}$ drives the tetramer binding energy for fixed trimer energy (or three-body scale $\mu_{(3)}$) and large scattering length ($a$). The three- and four-body forces from the one-channel reduction of the atomic interaction near a Feshbach resonance disentangle $\mu_{(4)}$ and $\mu_{(3)}$. The four-body independent scale is also manifested through a family of Tjon-lines, with slope given by $\mu_{(4)}/\mu_{(3)}$ for $a^{-1}=0$. There is the possibility of a new renormalization group limit cycle due to the new scale

The role of antihydrogen formation in the radial transport of antiprotons in positron plasmas

Simulations of the behaviour of antiprotons in positron clouds during antihydrogen formation.The work added to our understanding of the underlying processes, including the dominant role played by antihydrogen formation itself

Modelling the evolution and nucleosynthesis of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

We present the results of binary population simulations of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. We show that nitrogen and fluorine are useful tracers of the origin of CEMP stars, and conclude that the observed paucity of very nitrogen-rich stars puts strong constraints on possible modifications of the initial mass function at low metallicity. The large number fraction of CEMP stars may instead require much more efficient dredge-up from low-metallicity asymptotic giant branch stars.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 252 "The Art of Modelling Stars in the 21st Century", April 6-11, 2008, Sanya, Chin

On the formation of trappable antihydrogen

Study, using extensive simulations, of the fraction of trappable antihydrogen under typical experimental conditions. Discovery that positron collisions can influence the magnetic moment of the antihydrogen after formation to promote the trappable fraction. Thus attempting experiments at higher positron densities should be beneficial

Resonant Phenomena in Antihydrogen-Hydrogen Scattering

We present a treatment of cold hydrogen-antihydrogen collisions based on the asymptotic properties of atom-antiatom interactions. We derive general formulas for the elastic and inelastic cross sections and for the scattering lengths and analyze their sensitivity to the parameters characterizing the inelasticity of the collision process. Given the inelasticity, we obtain bounds for the complex scattering length. We investigate the influence of strong nuclear forces and the isotope effects in $\bar{\rm H}{\rm H}$ and $\bar{\rm H}{\rm D}$ collisions and demonstrate enhancement of these effects due to the presence of the near-threshold narrow ${\rm H}\bar{\rm H}$ ($\bar{\rm H}{\rm D}$) states. The values of the elastic and inelastic cross-sections with simultaneous account of rearrangement and strong forces are presented. General expressions for the (complex) energies of the near-threshold $\rm{H}\bar{\rm H}$ states are obtained.Comment: 26 pages 7 figure

Demonstration of a controllable three-dimensional Brownian motor in symmetric potentials

We demonstrate a Brownian motor, based on cold atoms in optical lattices, where isotropic random fluctuations are rectified in order to induce controlled atomic motion in arbitrary directions. In contrast to earlier demonstrations of ratchet effects, our Brownian motor operates in potentials that are spatially and temporally symmetric, but where spatiotemporal symmetry is broken by a phase shift between the potentials and asymmetric transfer rates between them. The Brownian motor is demonstrated in three dimensions and the noise-induced drift is controllable in our system.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure