A microscopic derivation of the quantum mechanical formal scattering cross section

We prove that the empirical distribution of crossings of a "detector'' surface by scattered particles converges in appropriate limits to the scattering cross section computed by stationary scattering theory. Our result, which is based on Bohmian mechanics and the flux-across-surfaces theorem, is the first derivation of the cross section starting from first microscopic principles.Comment: 28 pages, v2: Typos corrected, layout improved, v3: Typos corrected. Accepted for publication in Comm. Math. Phy

Atom-molecule Rabi oscillations in a Mott insulator

We observe large-amplitude Rabi oscillations between an atomic and a molecular state near a Feshbach resonance. The experiment uses 87Rb in an optical lattice and a Feshbach resonance near 414 G. The frequency and amplitude of the oscillations depend on magnetic field in a way that is well described by a two-level model. The observed density dependence of the oscillation frequency agrees with the theoretical expectation. We confirmed that the state produced after a half-cycle contains exactly one molecule at each lattice site. In addition, we show that for energies in a gap of the lattice band structure, the molecules cannot dissociate

Pilot Wave model that includes creation and annihilation of particles

The purpose of this paper is to come up with a Pilot Wave model of quantum field theory that incorporates particle creation and annihilation without sacrificing determinism. This has been previously attempted in an article by the same author titled "Incorporating particle creation and annihilation in Pilot Wave model", in a much less satisfactory way. In this paper I would like to "clean up" some of the things. In particular, I would like to get rid of a very unnatural concept of "visibility" of particles, which makes the model much simpler. On the other hand, I would like to add a mechanism for decoherence, which was absent in the previous version.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

On the exit statistics theorem of many particle quantum scattering

We review the foundations of the scattering formalism for one particle potential scattering and discuss the generalization to the simplest case of many non interacting particles. We point out that the "straight path motion" of the particles, which is achieved in the scattering regime, is at the heart of the crossing statistics of surfaces, which should be thought of as detector surfaces. We sketch a proof of the relevant version of the many particle flux across surfaces theorem and discuss what needs to be proven for the foundations of scattering theory in this context.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Multiscale methods in Quantum Mechanics", Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, December 16-20, 200

Combination of a magnetic Feshbach resonance and an optical bound-to-bound transition

We use laser light near resonant with an optical bound-to-bound transition to shift the magnetic field at which a Feshbach resonance occurs. We operate in a regime of large detuning and large laser intensity. This reduces the light-induced atom-loss rate by one order of magnitude compared to our previous experiments [D.M. Bauer et al. Nature Phys. 5, 339 (2009)]. The experiments are performed in an optical lattice and include high-resolution spectroscopy of excited molecular states, reported here. In addition, we give a detailed account of a theoretical model that describes our experimental data

Femtosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy of spin and orbital angular momentum in photoexcited Ni films during ultrafast demagnetization

We follow for the first time the evolution of the spin and orbital angular momentum of a thin Ni film during ultrafast demagnetization, by means of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Both components decrease with a 130 +/- 40 fs time constant upon excitation with a femtosecond laser pulse. Additional x-ray absorption measurements reveal an increase in the spin-orbit interaction by 6 +/- 2 % during this process. This is the experimental demonstration quantifying the importance of spin-orbit mediated processes during the demagnetization

Improving Quantum Query Complexity of Boolean Matrix Multiplication Using Graph Collision

The quantum query complexity of Boolean matrix multiplication is typically studied as a function of the matrix dimension, n, as well as the number of 1s in the output, \ell. We prove an upper bound of O (n\sqrt{\ell}) for all values of \ell. This is an improvement over previous algorithms for all values of \ell. On the other hand, we show that for any \eps < 1 and any \ell <= \eps n^2, there is an \Omega(n\sqrt{\ell}) lower bound for this problem, showing that our algorithm is essentially tight. We first reduce Boolean matrix multiplication to several instances of graph collision. We then provide an algorithm that takes advantage of the fact that the underlying graph in all of our instances is very dense to find all graph collisions efficiently

Hypersurface Bohm-Dirac models

We define a class of Lorentz invariant Bohmian quantum models for N entangled but noninteracting Dirac particles. Lorentz invariance is achieved for these models through the incorporation of an additional dynamical space-time structure provided by a foliation of space-time. These models can be regarded as the extension of Bohm's model for N Dirac particles, corresponding to the foliation into the equal-time hyperplanes for a distinguished Lorentz frame, to more general foliations. As with Bohm's model, there exists for these models an equivariant measure on the leaves of the foliation. This makes possible a simple statistical analysis of position correlations analogous to the equilibrium analysis for (the nonrelativistic) Bohmian mechanics.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, RevTex. Completely revised versio

A Mott-like State of Molecules

We prepare a quantum state where each site of an optical lattice is occupied by exactly one molecule. This is the same quantum state as in a Mott insulator of molecules in the limit of negligible tunneling. Unlike previous Mott insulators, our system consists of molecules which can collide inelastically. In the absence of the optical lattice these collisions would lead to fast loss of the molecules from the sample. To prepare the state, we start from a Mott insulator of atomic 87Rb with a central region, where each lattice site is occupied by exactly two atoms. We then associate molecules using a Feshbach resonance. Remaining atoms can be removed using blast light. Our method does not rely on the molecule-molecule interaction properties and is therefore applicable to many systems.Comment: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Atomic Physics (ICAP 2006), edited by C. Roos, H. Haffner, and R. Blatt, AIP Conference Proceedings, Melville, 2006, Vol. 869, pp. 278-28