Browse Physics

Monopoles with a single magnetic charge could be simulated in Bose-Einstein condensates

Measuring quantum interference of atomic matter waves may help detect experimental signatures of a fundamental theory of physics.

Ultrafast laser measurements map out the electronic structure of a neutral molecule as it photoionizes and breaks apart, leading to new conclusions about the time it takes for dissociation to occur.

The fermionic analog of a solid-state polaron (an electron surrounded by a cloud of phonons) has been created by dropping a spin-down atom into a Fermi sea of spin-up ultracold atoms.

Dispersive probing of an atomic transition decreases the “dead time” of optical atomic clocks, potentially enabling more stable time reference standards.

Loading cold atoms into a hollow-core optical fiber enables all-optical switching with just several hundred photons.

Calculations reveal that a dense cloud of cold atoms pumped with lasers can glow with its own laser light. Such ‘random lasers’ have previously been made only from solid and liquid materials.

In a cooled and trapped cloud of ytterbium atoms, the transition from a superfluid to an insulating state has been observed, opening up new possibilities for precision measurements, optical clocks, and quantum computing.

By bouncing cold atoms repeatedly using laser pulses, researchers have devised a way to measure the strength of gravity with a compact device.

Inelastic light scattering is used to study correlated phases of one-dimensional Bose gases. This spectroscopic technique can distinguish superfluid and insulating phases and allow identification of the transition from one to the other.

An ultracold atomic physics experiment reveals universal physics in a four-body system.

Trapped cold atom gases mimic much of the behavior of electrons in a solid, but because the atoms are neutral, it is difficult to imitate the physics of electrons moving in a magnetic field. Now, experiments show that a suitable combination of lasers can create an artificial magnetic field for cold atoms.

Stochastic resonance, in which a periodic signal applied to a nonlinear system can be amplified by adding noise, has been observed in a mechanical system and predicted to occur in a Bose-Einstein condensate.

New measurements have pinned down the frequency of a long-lived optical transition in ytterbium with the potential for better atomic clocks.

An atomic physics experiment demonstrates a solution to an eighty-year-old quantum conundrum by mimicking in an atom the astronomical problem of a satellite moving in a sun-earth system.

The hyperfine levels of a calcium ion form the basis of a qubit that stores quantum information with high fidelity for nearly 100 ms.

Recent calculations of the properties of ultracold atoms have revealed how two-body interactions at very short distances determine essential properties of many-body systems.

Trapping atoms inside of a submicron volume for applications such as quantum computing and nanoscale optics poses a host of experimental difficulties. One idea for doing this takes advantage of the strong electric field that can be excited on the surface of metal nanoparticles.

Ultracold atoms in an optical lattice share a lot of physics with electrons in a crystalline solid and it is a system that is often much easier to control. By forcing an optical lattice to vary with time, it is possible to engineer the energy of cold atoms and essentially bring them to a halt.

A hydrogen molecule trapped in a carbon cage is restricted to discrete energies of linear and rotational motion, an unusually clean demonstration of the wave nature of molecules.