Ultracold dipolar gases - a challenge for experiments and theory

We present a review of recent results concerning the physics of ultracold trapped dipolar gases. In particular, we discuss the Bose-Einstein condensation for dipolar Bose gases and the BCS transition for dipolar Fermi gases. In both cases we stress the dominant role of the trap geometry in determining the properties of the system. We present also results concerning bosonic dipolar gases in optical lattices and the possibility of obtaining variety of different quantum phases in such case. Finally, we analyze various possible routes towards achieving ultracold dipolar gases.Comment: This paper is based on the lecture given by M. Lewenstein at the Nobel Symposium ''Coherence and Condensation in Quantum Systems'', Gothesburg, 4-7.12.200

2-Dimensional Dipolar Scattering

We characterize the long range dipolar scattering in 2-dimensions. We use the analytic zero energy wavefunction including the dipolar interaction; this solution yields universal dipolar scattering properties in the threshold regime. We also study the semi-classical dipolar scattering and find universal dipolar scattering for this energy regime. For both energy regimes, we discuss the validity of the universality and give physical examples of the scattering.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure

Dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring or in a shell

We study properties of a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a circular ring or a spherical shell using the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In the case of the ring-shaped trap we consider different orientations of the ring with respect to the polarization direction of the dipoles. In the presence of long-range anisotropic dipolar and short-range contact interactions, the anisotropic density distribution of the dipolar BEC in both traps is discussed in detail. The stability condition of the dipolar BEC in both traps is illustrated in phase plot of dipolar and contact interactions. We also study and discuss the properties of a vortex dipolar BEC in these traps

Control of dipolar relaxation in external fields

We study dipolar relaxation in both ultra-cold thermal and Bose-condensed chromium atom gases. We show three different ways to control dipolar relaxation, making use of either a static magnetic field, an oscillatory magnetic field, or an optical lattice to reduce the dimensionality of the gas from 3D to 2D. Although dipolar relaxation generally increases as a function of a static magnetic field intensity, we find a range of non-zero magnetic field intensities where dipolar relaxation is strongly reduced. We use this resonant reduction to accurately determine the S=6 scattering length of chromium atoms: $a_6 = 103 \pm 4 a_0$. We compare this new measurement to another new determination of $a_6$, which we perform by analysing the precise spectroscopy of a Feshbach resonance in d-wave collisions, yielding $a_6 = 102.5 \pm 0.4 a_0$. These two measurements provide by far the most precise determination of $a_6$ to date. We then show that, although dipolar interactions are long-range interactions, dipolar relaxation only involves the incoming partial wave $l=0$ for large enough magnetic field intensities, which has interesting consequences on the stability of dipolar Fermi gases. We then study ultra-cold chromium gases in a 1D optical lattice resulting in a collection of independent 2D gases. We show that dipolar relaxation is modified when the atoms collide in reduced dimensionality at low magnetic field intensities, and that the corresponding dipolar relaxation rate parameter is reduced by a factor up to 7 compared to the 3D case. Finally, we study dipolar relaxation in presence of radio-frequency (rf) oscillating magnetic fields, and we show that both the output channel energy and the transition amplitude can be controlled by means of rf frequency and Rabi frequency.Comment: 25 pages, 17 figure

Stability of trapped degenerate dipolar Bose and Fermi gases

Trapped degenerate dipolar Bose and Fermi gases of cylindrical symmetry with the polarization vector along the symmetry axis are only stable for the strength of dipolar interaction below a critical value. In the case of bosons, the stability of such a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is investigated for different strengths of contact and dipolar interactions using variational approximation and numerical solution of a mean-field model. In the disk shape, with the polarization vector perpendicular to the plane of the disk, the atoms experience an overall dipolar repulsion and this fact should contribute to the stability. However, a complete numerical solution of the dynamics leads to the collapse of a strongly disk-shaped dipolar BEC due to the long-range anisotropic dipolar interaction. In the case of fermions, the stability of a trapped single-component degenerate dipolar Fermi gas is studied including the Hartree-Fock exchange and Brueckner-Goldstone correlation energies in the local density approximation valid for a large number of atoms. Estimates for the maximum allowed number of polar Bose and Fermi molecules in BEC and degenerate Fermi gas are given