SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 1601.04616

Quantum optics and frontiers of physics: The third quantum revolution

Abstract

The year 2015 was the International Year of Light. It marked, however, also the 20th anniversary of the first observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic vapors by Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman and Wolfgang Ketterle. This discovery can be considered as one of the greatest achievements of quantum optics that has triggered an avalanche of further seminal discoveries and achievements. For this reason we devote this essay for focus issue on "Quantum Optics in the International Year of Light" to the recent revolutionary developments in quantum optics at the frontiers of all physics: atomic physics, molecular physics, condensed matter physics, high energy physics and quantum information science. We follow here the lines of the introduction to our book "Ultracold atoms in optical lattices: Simulating quantum many-body systems" [1]. The book, however, was published in 2012, and many things has happened since then -- the present essay is therefore upgraded to include the latest developments.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Alessio Celi, Anna Sanpera, Veronica Ahufinger, Maciej Lewenstein. 2016-07-10. Quantum optics and frontiers of physics: The third quantum revolution. https://doi.org/10.1088/1402-4896%2F92%2F1%2F013003

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Transdimensional quantum droplets in an optically trapped Bose mixture

We study quantum droplets in a symmetric two-component Bose mixture with interspecies $p$-wave interactions and a two-dimensional transverse optical lattice. The lattice drives a crossover from an anisotropic three-dimensional gas to weakly coupled one-dimensional tubes. We calculate the ground-state energy and quantum depletion at the Gaussian level and derive their limiting forms. At $y=g_{12}/g=-0.95$, where the bare mean field is repulsive and no free-space droplet exists, the calculated bulk equation of state supports a self-bound minimum across the crossover: a negative lattice contribution at order $n^{2}$ supplies the attraction in the three-dimensional regime, and attractive fluctuations do so in the quasi-one-dimensional regime, with the intermediate, transdimensional range described quantitatively by neither limit. The interspecies $p$-wave interaction modifies only the spin branch. In the parameter range studied, increasing its strength lowers the equilibrium density across the crossover, consistently with a weakening of the induced binding.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Microwave-controlled interactions and stripe formation of static-field-shielded polar molecules

We study polar molecules where short-range losses are suppressed by a shielding scheme involving a static electric field and an elliptically polarized microwave field. Using perturbation theory, we derive the effective interaction potential and validate it against coupled channel calculations. We identify a parameter regime where two-body losses are strongly suppressed and the extended mean-field description of dilute molecular Bose-Einstein condensates is justified. We calculate the collective excitations and show that intriguingly, supersolidity in quasi-two-dimensional confinement emerges as a stripe phase even at small values of microwave ellipticity.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Finite-time effects in periodically kicked systems

In this work, we study finite-time effects in ultracold atomic systems by considering time-dependent modulations with variable waveforms and durations. These two characteristics can be controlled by adjusting only a single parameter. For arbitrarily short pulses, our model recovers the paradigmatic kicked rotor while maintaining the impulse transmitted per period and unit amplitude constant. Furthermore, we demonstrate that finite-time effects have a profound impact on dynamical localization, a result that cannot be captured by the {\delta}-kicked-rotor model. Through a detailed analysis of the effects of different modulation amplitudes, periods, and waveforms, we identify the conditions for which dynamical localization is significantly enhanced. We show that the strength of dynamical localization increases sharply as the system approaches the {\delta}-kicked-rotor limiting case. Moreover, we establish the existence of an optimal value of the period that maximizes dynamical localization for given values of the amplitude and shape parameter.

cond-mat.quant-gas