No Arabic abstract
A Bose-Einstein condensate is created in a simple and robust miniature Ioffe-Pritchard trap, the so-called Z trap. This trap follows from the mere combination of a Z-shaped current carrying wire and a homogeneous bias field. The experimental procedure allows condensation of typically 3x10^5 Rb-87 atoms in the |F=2, m_F=2> state close to any mirroring surface, irrespective of its structure, thus it is ideally suited as a source for cold atom physics near surfaces.
We present a novel experimental approach to Bose-Einstein condensation by increasing the particle number of the system at almost constant temperature. In particular the emergence of a new condensate is observed in multi-component F=1 spinor condensates of 87-Rb. Furthermore we develop a simple rate-equation model for multi-component BEC thermodynamics at finite temperature which well reproduces the measured effects.
We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules. When a spin mixture of fermionic Li-6 atoms was evaporatively cooled in an optical dipole trap near a Feshbach resonance, the atomic gas was converted into Li_2 molecules. Below 600 nK, a Bose-Einstein condensate of up to 900,000 molecules was identified by the sudden onset of a bimodal density distribution. This condensate realizes the limit of tightly bound fermion pairs in the crossover between BCS superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation.
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are macroscopic coherent matter waves that have revolutionized quantum science and atomic physics. They are essential to quantum simulation and sensing, for example underlying atom interferometers in space and ambitious tests of Einsteins equivalence principle. The key to dramatically increasing the bandwidth and precision of such matter-wave sensors lies in sustaining a coherent matter wave indefinitely. Here we demonstrate continuous Bose-Einstein condensation by creating a continuous-wave (CW) condensate of strontium atoms that lasts indefinitely. The coherent matter wave is sustained by amplification through Bose-stimulated gain of atoms from a thermal bath. By steadily replenishing this bath while achieving 1000x higher phase-space densities than previous works, we maintain the conditions for condensation. This advance overcomes a fundamental limitation of all atomic quantum gas experiments to date: the need to execute several cooling stages time-sequentially. Continuous matter-wave amplification will make possible CW atom lasers, atomic counterparts of CW optical lasers that have become ubiquitous in technology and society. The coherence of such atom lasers will no longer be fundamentally limited by the atom number in a BEC and can ultimately reach the standard quantum limit. Our development provides a new, hitherto missing piece of atom optics, enabling the construction of continuous coherent matter-wave devices. From infrasound gravitational wave detectors to optical clocks, the dramatic improvement in coherence, bandwidth and precision now within reach will be decisive in the creation of a new class of quantum sensors.
We introduce an irreversible discrete multiplicative process that undergoes Bose-Einstein condensation as a generic model of competition. New players with different abilities successively join the game and compete for limited resources. A players future gain is proportional to its ability and its current gain. The theory provides three principles for this type of competition: competitive exclusion, punctuated equilibria, and a critical condition for the distribution of the players abilities necessary for the dominance and the evolution. We apply this theory to genetics, ecology and economy.
We observe multi-step condensation of sodium atoms with spin $F=1$, where the different Zeeman components $m_F=0,pm 1$ condense sequentially as the temperature decreases. The precise sequence changes drastically depending on the magnetization $m_z$ and on the quadratic Zeeman energy $q$ (QZE) in an applied magnetic field. For large QZE, the overall structure of the phase diagram is the same as for an ideal spin 1 gas, although the precise locations of the phase boundaries are significantly shifted by interactions. For small QZE, antiferromagnetic interactions qualitatively change the phase diagram with respect to the ideal case, leading for instance to condensation in $m_F=pm 1$, a phenomenon that cannot occur for an ideal gas with $q>0$.