Quantum Wires and Quantum Dots for Neutral Atoms

By placing changeable nanofabricated structures (wires, dots, etc.) on an atom mirror one can design guiding and trapping potentials for atoms. These potentials are similar to the electrostatic potentials which trap and guide electrons in semiconductor quantum devices like quantum wires and quantum dots. This technique will allow the fabrication of nanoscale atom optical devices.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, EPJ D in prin

Dephasing in two decoupled one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates and the subexponential decay of the interwell coherence

We provide a simple physical picture of the loss of coherence between two coherently split one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates. The source of the dephasing is identified with nonlinear corrections to the elementary excitation energies in either of the two independent condensates. We retrieve the result by Burkov, Lukin and Demler [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 200404 (2007)] on the subexponential decay of the cocherence for the large time, however, the scaling of the characteristic decoherence time differs.Comment: revtex4, no figure

Guiding Neutral Atoms with a Wire

We demonstrate guiding of cold neutral atoms along a current carrying wire. Atoms either move in Kepler-like orbits around the wire or are guided in a potential tube on the side of the wire which is created by applying an additional homogeneous bias field. These atom guides are very versatile and promising for applications in atom optics.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR

Rydberg Atoms in Magnetic Quadrupole Traps

We investigate the electronic structure and properties of Rydberg atoms exposed to a magnetic quadrupole field. It is shown that the spatial as well as generalized time reversal symmetries lead to a two-fold degeneracy of the electronic states in the presence of the external field. A delicate interplay between the Coulomb and magnetic interactions in the inhomogeneous field leads to an unusual weak field splitting of the energy levels as well as complex spatial patterns of the corresponding spin polarization density of individual Rydberg states. Remarkably the magnetic quadrupole field induces a permanent electric dipole moment of the atom.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in EP

One-dimensional atomic superfluids as a model system for quantum thermodynamics

In this chapter we will present the one-dimensional (1d) quantum degenerate Bose gas (1d superfluid) as a testbed to experimentally illustrate some of the key aspects of quantum thermodynamics. Hard-core bosons in one-dimension are described by the integrable Lieb-Lininger model. Realistic systems, as they can be implemented, are only approximately integrable, and let us investigate the cross over to 'thermalisation'. They show such fundamental properties as pre-thermalisation, general Gibbs ensembles and light-cone like spreading of de-coherence. On the other hand they are complex enough to illustrate that our limited ability to measure only (local) few-body observables determines the relevant description of the many-body system and its physics. One consequence is the observation of quantum recurrences in systems with thousand of interacting particles. The relaxation observed in 1D superfluids is universal for a large class of many-body systems, those where the relevant physics can be described by a set of 'long lived' collective modes. The time window where the 'close to integrable' dynamics can be observed is given by the 'lifetime' of the quasi-particles associated with the collective modes. Based on these observations one can view (in a quantum field theory sense) a many-body quantum system at T=0 as 'vacuum' and its excitations as the system to experiment with. This viewpoint leads to a new way to build thermal machines from the quasi-particles in 1D superfluids. We will give examples of how to realise these systems and point to a few interesting questions that might be addressed.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; Chapter of the upcoming book "Thermodynamics in the Quantum Regime - Recent Progress and Outlook", eds. F. Binder, L. A. Correa, C. Gogolin, J. Anders, and G. Adesso; comments welcom