Migrant Land Birds and Water Birds in the Mariana Islands

Approximately 56 species of land and freshwater birds have been recorded as migrants or vagrants in the Mariana Islands, but few occur in substantial numbers. Common migrants include the Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), Northern Pintail (Anas acuta), and Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis). Several other heron and duck species appear most years in small numbers. The Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the only regular migrant land bird. A similar assemblage of herons and waterfowl has been reported from the Ogasawara and Iwo Islands to the north. Many more species of migrant land birds occur in the Ogasawara and Iwo groups and in Palau to the southwest, which are closer to large land masses

Design of photonic crystal microcavities for cavity QED

We discuss the optimization of optical microcavity designs based on 2D photonic crystals for the purpose of strong coupling between the cavity field and a single neutral atom trapped within a hole. We present numerical predictions for the quality factors and mode volumes of localized defect modes as a function of geometric parameters, and discuss some experimental challenges related to the coupling of a defect cavity to gas-phase atoms.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figure

Surface Effects in Magnetic Microtraps

We have investigated Bose-Einstein condensates and ultra cold atoms in the vicinity of a surface of a magnetic microtrap. The atoms are prepared along copper conductors at distances to the surface between 300 um and 20 um. In this range, the lifetime decreases from 20 s to 0.7 s showing a linear dependence on the distance to the surface. The atoms manifest a weak thermal coupling to the surface, with measured heating rates remaining below 500 nK/s. In addition, we observe a periodic fragmentation of the condensate and thermal clouds when the surface is approached.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; v2: corrected references; v3: final versio

A fundamental limit for integrated atom optics with Bose-Einstein condensates

The dynamical response of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate manipulated by an integrated atom optics device such as a microtrap or a microfabricated waveguide is studied. We show that when the miniaturization of the device enforces a sufficiently high condensate density, three-body interactions lead to a spatial modulational instability that results in a fundamental limit on the coherent manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure