40 research outputs found
Vibronic "Rabi resonances" in harmonic and hard-wall ion-traps for arbitrary laser intensity and detuning
We investigate laser-driven vibronic transitions of a single two-level atomic
ion in harmonic and hard wall traps. In the Lamb-Dicke regime, for tuned or
detuned lasers with respect to the internal frequency of the ion, and weak or
strong laser intensities, the vibronic transitions occur at well isolated "Rabi
Resonances", where the detuning-adapted Rabi frequency coincides with the level
spacing of the vibrational modes. These vibronic resonances are characterized
as avoided crossings of the dressed levels (eigenvalues of the full
Hamiltonian). Their peculiarities due to symmetry constraints and trapping
potential are also examined.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Free expansion of impenetrable bosons on one-dimensional optical lattices
We review recent exact results for the free expansion of impenetrable bosons
on one-dimensional lattices, after switching off a confining potential. When
the system is initially in a superfluid state, far from the regime in which the
Mott-insulator appears in the middle of the trap, the momentum distribution of
the expanding bosons rapidly approaches the momentum distribution of
noninteracting fermions. Remarkably, no loss in coherence is observed in the
system as reflected by a large occupation of the lowest eigenstate of the
one-particle density matrix. In the opposite limit, when the initial system is
a pure Mott insulator with one particle per lattice site, the expansion leads
to the emergence of quasicondensates at finite momentum. In this case,
one-particle correlations like the ones shown to be universal in the
equilibrium case develop in the system. We show that the out-of-equilibrium
behavior of the Shannon information entropy in momentum space, and its contrast
with the one of noninteracting fermions, allows to differentiate the two
different regimes of interest. It also helps in understanding the crossover
between them.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures, invited brief revie
Collective Excitations of Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Double-Well Potential
We investigate collective excitations of Bose-Einstein condensates at
absolute zero in a double-well trap. We solve the Bogoliubov equations with a
double-well trap, and show that the crossover from the dipole mode to the
Josephson plasma mode occurs in the lowest energy excitation. It is found that
the anomalous tunneling property of low energy excitations is crucial to the
crossover.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Direct Observation of Sub-Poissonian Number Statistics in a Degenerate Bose Gas
We report the direct observation of sub-Poissonian number fluctuation for a
degenerate Bose gas confined in an optical trap. Reduction of number
fluctuations below the Poissonian limit is observed for average numbers that
range from 300 to 60 atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Conduction of Ultracold Fermions Through a Mesoscopic Channel
In a mesoscopic conductor electric resistance is detected even if the device
is defect-free. We engineer and study a cold-atom analog of a mesoscopic
conductor. It consists of a narrow channel connecting two macroscopic
reservoirs of fermions that can be switched from ballistic to diffusive. We
induce a current through the channel and find ohmic conduction, even for a
ballistic channel. An analysis of in-situ density distributions shows that in
the ballistic case the chemical potential drop occurs at the entrance and exit
of the channel, revealing the presence of contact resistance. In contrast, a
diffusive channel with disorder displays a chemical potential drop spread over
the whole channel. Our approach opens the way towards quantum simulation of
mesoscopic devices with quantum gases
Multiple drugs compete for transport via the Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter at distinct but interdependent sites
Mutations in the "chloroquine resistance transporter" (PfCRT) are a major determinant of drug resistance in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. We have previously shown that mutant PfCRT transports the antimalarial drug chloroquine away from its target, whereas the wild-type form of PfCRT does not. However, little is understood about the transport of other drugs via PfCRT or the mechanism by which PfCRT recognizes different substrates. Here we show that mutant PfCRT also transports quinine, quinidine, and verapamil, indicating that the protein behaves as a multidrug resistance carrier. Detailed kinetic analyses revealed that chloroquine and quinine compete for transport via PfCRT in a manner that is consistent with mixed-type inhibition. Moreover, our analyses suggest that PfCRT accepts chloroquine and quinine at distinct but antagonistically interacting sites. We also found verapamil to be a partial mixed-type inhibitor of chloroquine transport via PfCRT, further supporting the idea that PfCRT possesses multiple substratebinding sites. Our findings provide new mechanistic insights into the workings of PfCRT, which could be exploited to design potent inhibitors of this key mediator of drug resistance
Observation of power-law scaling for phase transitions in linear trapped ion crystals
We report an experimental confirmation of the power-law relationship between
the critical anisotropy parameter and ion number for the linear-to-zigzag phase
transition in an ionic crystal. Our experiment uses laser cooled calcium ions
confined in a linear radio-frequency trap. Measurements for up to 10 ions are
in good agreement with theoretical and numeric predictions. Implications on an
upper limit to the size of data registers in ion trap quantum computers are
discussed.Comment: Physical Review Letters in press, 4 pages, 4 figure
Exact propagators for atom-laser interactions
A class of exact propagators describing the interaction of an -level atom
with a set of on-resonance -lasers is obtained by means of the Laplace
transform method. State-selective mirrors are described in the limit of strong
lasers. The ladder, V and configurations for a three-level atom are
discussed. For the two level case, the transient effects arising as result of
the interaction between both a semi-infinite beam and a wavepacket with the
on-resonance laser are examined.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Quantum computing with four-particle decoherence-free states in ion trap
Quantum computing gates are proposed to apply on trapped ions in
decoherence-free states. As phase changes due to time evolution of components
with different eigenenergies of quantum superposition are completely frozen,
quantum computing based on this model would be perfect. Possible application of
our scheme in future ion-trap quantum computer is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. Comments are welcom