Continuum in the spin excitation spectrum of a Haldane chain, observed by neutron scattering in CsNiCl3

The spin excitation continuum, expected to dominate the low-energy fluctuation spectrum in the Haldane spin chain around the Brillouin zone center, q=0, is directly observed by inelastic magnetic neutron scattering in the S=1 quasi-1D antiferromagnet CsNiCl3. We find that the single mode approximation fails, and that a finite energy width appears in the dynamic correlation function S(q,omega) for q < 0.5pi. The width increases with decreasing q, while S(q,omega) acquires an asymmetric shape qualitatively similar to that predicted for the 2-magnon continuum in the nonlinear sigma-model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

A cesium gas strongly confined in one dimension : sideband cooling and collisional properties

We study one-dimensional sideband cooling of Cesium atoms strongly confined in a far-detuned optical lattice. The Lamb-Dicke regime is achieved in the lattice direction whereas the transverse confinement is much weaker. The employed sideband cooling method, first studied by Vuletic et al.\cite{Vule98}, uses Raman transitions between Zeeman levels and produces a spin-polarized sample. We present a detailed study of this cooling method and investigate the role of elastic collisions in the system. We accumulate $83(5)$ of the atoms in the vibrational ground state of the strongly confined motion, and elastic collisions cool the transverse motion to a temperature of $2.8 \mu$K=$0.7 \hbar\omega_{\rm osc}/k_{\rm B}$, where $\omega_{\rm osc}$ is the oscillation frequency in the strongly confined direction. The sample then approaches the regime of a quasi-2D cold gas. We analyze the limits of this cooling method and propose a dynamical change of the trapping potential as a mean of cooling the atomic sample to still lower temperatures. Measurements of the rate of thermalization between the weakly and strongly confined degrees of freedom are compatible with the zero energy scattering resonance observed previously in weak 3D traps. For the explored temperature range the measurements agree with recent calculations of quasi-2D collisions\cite{Petr01}. Transparent analytical models reproduce the expected behavior for $k_{\rm B}T \gg \hbar \omega_{\rm osc}$ and also for $k_{\rm B}T \ll \hbar \omega_{\rm osc}$ where the 2D features are prominent.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure

A rigorous derivation of the stationary compressible Reynolds equation via the Navier-Stokes equations

We provide a rigorous derivation of the compressible Reynolds system as a singular limit of the compressible (barotropic) Navier-Stokes system on a thin domain. In particular, the existence of solutions to the Navier-Stokes system with non-homogeneous boundary conditions is shown that may be of independent interest. Our approach is based on new a priori bounds available for the pressure law of hard sphere type. Finally, uniqueness for the limit problem is established in the 1D case