We demonstrate the measurement and manipulation of the temperature of cold CO molecules in a microchip environment. Through the use of time-resolved spatial imaging, we are able to observe the phase-space distribution of the molecules, and hence dedu
ce the corresponding temperature. We do this both by observing the expansion of the molecular ensemble in time and through the use of numerical trajectory simulations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the adiabatic cooling of the trapped molecular sample and discuss this process.
We detail the experimental observation of the non-equilibrium many-body phenomenon prethermalization. We study the dynamics of a rapidly and coherently split one-dimensional Bose gas. An analysis based on the use of full quantum mechanical probabilit
y distributions of matter wave interference contrast reveals that the system evolves towards a quasi-steady state. This state, which can be characterized by an effective temperature, is not the final thermal equilibrium state. We compare the evolution of the system to an integrable Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid model and show that the system dephases to a prethermalized state rather than undergoing thermalization towards a final thermal equilibrium state.
