arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Mikkel Andersen.
We present a new experimental system (the ``atom-optics billiard'') and demonstrate chaotic and regular dynamics of cold, optically trapped atoms. We show that the softness of the walls and additional optical potentials can be used to manipulate the structure of phase space.
We present numerical and experimental results for the development of islands of stability in atom-optics billiards with soft walls. As the walls are soften, stable regions appear near singular periodic trajectories in converging (focusing) and dispersing billiards, and are surrounded by areas of "stickiness" in phase-space. The size of these islands depends on the softness of the potential in a very sensitive way.