78 research outputs found
Strongly inhibited transport of a 1D Bose gas in a lattice
We report the observation of strongly damped dipole oscillations of a quantum
degenerate 1D atomic Bose gas in a combined harmonic and optical lattice
potential. Damping is significant for very shallow axial lattices (0.25 photon
recoil energies), and increases dramatically with increasing lattice depth,
such that the gas becomes nearly immobile for times an order of magnitude
longer than the single-particle tunneling time. Surprisingly, we see no
broadening of the atomic quasimomentum distribution after damped motion. Recent
theoretical work suggests that quantum fluctuations can strongly damp dipole
oscillations of 1D atomic Bose gas, providing a possible explanation for our
observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Three-body recombination in a three-state Fermi gas with widely tunable interactions
We investigate the stability of a three spin state mixture of ultracold
fermionic Li atoms over a range of magnetic fields encompassing three
Feshbach resonances. For most field values, we attribute decay of the atomic
population to three-body processes involving one atom from each spin state and
find that the three-body loss coefficient varies by over four orders of
magnitude. We observe high stability when at least two of the three scattering
lengths are small, rapid loss near the Feshbach resonances, and two unexpected
resonant loss features. At our highest fields, where all pairwise scattering
lengths are approaching , we measure a three-body loss
coefficient and a trend
toward lower decay rates for higher fields indicating that future studies of
color superfluidity and trion formation in a SU(3) symmetric Fermi gas may be
feasible
Quantum and Classical Dynamics of a BEC in a Large-Period Optical Lattice
We experimentally investigate diffraction of a Rb-87 Bose-Einstein condensate
from a 1D optical lattice. We use a range of lattice periods and timescales,
including those beyond the Raman-Nath limit. We compare the results to quantum
mechanical and classical simulations, with quantitative and qualitative
agreement, respectively. The classical simulation predicts that the envelope of
the time-evolving diffraction pattern is shaped by caustics: singularities in
the phase space density of classical trajectories. This behavior becomes
increasingly clear as the lattice period grows.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Observation of an Efimov spectrum in an atomic system
In 1970 V. Efimov predicted a puzzling quantum-mechanical effect that is
still of great interest today. He found that three particles subjected to a
resonant pairwise interaction can join into an infinite number of loosely bound
states even though each particle pair cannot bind. Interestingly, the
properties of these aggregates, such as the peculiar geometric scaling of their
energy spectrum, are universal, i.e. independent of the microscopic details of
their components. Despite an extensive search in many different physical
systems, including atoms, molecules and nuclei, the characteristic spectrum of
Efimov trimer states still eludes observation. Here we report on the discovery
of two bound trimer states of potassium atoms very close to the Efimov
scenario, which we reveal by studying three-particle collisions in an ultracold
gas. Our observation provides the first evidence of an Efimov spectrum and
allows a direct test of its scaling behaviour, shedding new light onto the
physics of few-body systems.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
On the modification of the Efimov spectrum in a finite cubic box
Three particles with large scattering length display a universal spectrum of
three-body bound states called "Efimov trimers''. We calculate the modification
of the Efimov trimers of three identical bosons in a finite cubic box and
compute the dependence of their energies on the box size using effective field
theory. Previous calculations for positive scattering length that were
perturbative in the finite volume energy shift are extended to arbitrarily
large shifts and negative scattering lengths. The renormalization of the
effective field theory in the finite volume is explicitly verified. Moreover,
we investigate the effects of partial wave mixing and study the behavior of
shallow trimers near the dimer energy. Finally, we provide numerical evidence
for universal scaling of the finite volume corrections.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, published versio
A Longitudinal Study Evaluating the Effects of Interferon-Alpha Therapy on Cognitive and Psychiatric Function in Adults with Chronic Hepatitis C
Objective: To prospectively evaluate for changes in objective cognitive performance (attention, memory, and executive function) and psychiatric symptom severity (depression, anxiety, fatigue, and pain) in patients before, during and after interferon-alpha based therapy (IFN) for chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV).
Methods: 33 HCV+ adults were evaluated two months before IFN initiation (baseline), three months into IFN, and six months following IFN termination (IFN+ Group). 31 HCV+ adults who did not undergo IFN therapy were evaluated at baseline and six months later (IFN− Group). At each evaluation, participants completed the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) Attention, Memory and Executive Functions Modules, the Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Inventory (GADI), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and Brief Pain Inventory (BPI).
Results: Compared with the IFN− Group, the IFN+ Group experienced significantly (p b 0.050) increased symp-toms of depression, anxiety, fatigue and pain during IFN therapy relative to baseline. In the IFN+ Group, psychi-atric symptoms generally returned to baseline levels following IFN termination. Sustained viral response was associated with significantly lower depression and fatigue. No significant changes in cognitive performance were observed.
Conclusions: During IFN, patients with HCV evidence significantly increased psychiatric symptoms, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, fatigue and pain. These psychiatric symptoms are generally short-term and remit following IFN termination, with increased benefit if viral clearance is achieved. However, IFN is not associated with significant declines in objective cognitive performance during or following IFN
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