We analyze in detail the expansion of a 1D Bose gas after removing the axial confinement. We show that during its one-dimensional expansion the density of the Bose gas does not follow a self-similar solution. Our analysis is based on a nonlinear Schrödinger equation with variable nonlinearity whose validity is discussed for the expansion problem, by comparing with an exact Bose-Fermi mapping for the case of an initial Tonks-Girardeau gas. For this case, the gas is shown to expand self-similarly, with a different scaling law compared to the one-dimensional Thomas-Fermi condensate.

Orbital angular momentum entangled photons emitted by a down-conversion source are in higher dimensional entangled states. Here we report the experimental confirmation by demonstrating a violation of a generalized Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt–type Bell inequality in three dimensions by more than 18 standard deviations. Higher dimensional entangled states allow the realization of new types of quantum communication protocols. They also provide a more secure quantum cryptography scheme. Therefore our experimental results are likely to have applications in future quantum communication technology.

Renormalization group limit cycles and more chaotic behavior may be commonplace for quantum Hamiltonians requiring renormalization, in contrast to experience based on classical models with critical behavior, where fixed points are far more common. We discuss the simplest quantum model Hamiltonian identified so far that exhibits a renormalization group with both limit cycle and chaotic behavior. The model is a discrete Hermitian matrix with two coupling constants, both governed by a nonperturbative renormalization group equation that involves changes in only one of these couplings and is soluble analytically.

We study the transport of overdamped Brownian particles in periodic potentials subject to a spatially modulated Gaussian white noise. We derive an analytical expression for the diffusion coefficient of particles. By means of velocity, diffusion coefficient, and their ratio (Péclet number) we discuss (a) symmetric potential and modulation of noise intensity and (b) a ratchet profile with strong noise modulation. It is shown that state dependent fluctuations may not only induce directed transport, but also a pronounced coherence of transport if the potential exhibits a strong asymmetry.

We demonstrate how to realize an optical clock with neutral atoms that is competitive to the currently best single ion optical clocks in accuracy and superior in stability. Using ultracold atoms in a Ca optical frequency standard, we show how to reduce the relative uncertainty to below ${10}^{-15}$. We observed atom interferences for stabilization of the laser to the clock transition with a visibility of 0.36, which is 70% of the ultimate limit achievable with atoms at rest. A novel scheme was applied to detect these atom interferences with the prospect to reach the quantum projection noise limit at an exceptional low instability of $4\times {10}^{-17}$ in 1 s.

The force experienced by objects embedded in a correlated medium undergoing thermal fluctuations—the so-called fluctuation-induced force—is actually itself a fluctuating quantity. Using a scalar field model, we compute the corresponding probability distribution and show that it is a Gaussian centered on the well-known Casimir force, with a nonuniversal standard deviation that can be typically as large as the mean force itself. The relevance of these results to the experimental measurement of fluctuation-induced forces in soft condensed matter is discussed, as well as the influence of the finite temporal resolution of the measuring apparatus.

We have studied ionizing collisions in a BEC of metastable He. Measurements of the ion production rate combined with measurements of the density and number of atoms for the same sample allow us to estimate both the two- and three-body contributions to this rate. A comparison with the decay of the atom number indicates that ionizing collisions are largely or wholly responsible for the loss. Quantum depletion makes a substantial correction to the three-body rate constant.

Fermionic atoms confined in a potential created by standing wave light can undergo a phase transition to a superfluid state at a dramatically increased transition temperature. Depending upon carefully controlled parameters, a transition to a superfluid state of Cooper pairs, antiferromagnetic states or $d$-wave pairing states can be induced and probed under realistic experimental conditions. We describe an atomic physics experiment that can provide critical insight into the origin of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates.

Dissipation and decoherence, and the evolution from pure to mixed states in quantum physics, are handled through master equations for the density matrix. By embedding elements of this matrix in a higher-dimensional Liouville-Bloch equation, the methods of unitary integration are adapted to solve for the density matrix as a function of time, including the nonunitary effects of dissipation and decoherence. The input requires only solutions of classical, initial value time-dependent equations. Results are illustrated for a damped, driven two-level system.

We experimentally demonstrate interferometer-type guiding structures for neutral atoms based on dipole potentials created by microfabricated optical systems. As a central element we use an array of atom waveguides being formed by focusing a red-detuned laser beam with an array of cylindrical microlenses. Combining two of these arrays, we realize X-shaped beam splitters and more complex systems like the geometries for Mach-Zehnder and Michelson-type interferometers for atoms.

We prove that in the absence of explicit spin-dependent forces one of the ground states of interacting bosons with spin is always fully polarized. Generally, this state is degenerate with other states, but one can specify the exact degeneracy. For $T>0$, the magnetization and zero-field susceptibility exceed that of a pure paramagnet. The results are relevant to experimental work on triplet superconductivity and condensation of atoms with spin. They eliminate the possibility, raised in some theoretical speculations, that the ground state or positive temperature state might be antiferromagnetic.

We calculate the Berry phase of a spin-1/2 particle in a magnetic field considering the quantum nature of the field. The phase reduces to the standard Berry phase in the semiclassical limit and the eigenstate of the particle acquires a phase in the vacuum. We also show how to generate a vacuum induced Berry phase considering two quantized modes of the field which has an interesting physical interpretation.

We report a measurement of the suppression of collisions of quasiparticles with ground state atoms within a Bose-Einstein condensate at low momentum. These collisions correspond to Beliaev damping of the excitations, in the previously unexplored regime of the continuous quasiparticle energy spectrum. We use a hydrodynamic simulation of the expansion dynamics, with the Beliaev damping cross section, in order to confirm the assumptions of our analysis.

Temporal periodic modulation of the interatomic $s$-wave scattering length in Bose-Einstein condensates is shown to excite subharmonic patterns in the atom density through a parametric resonance. The dominant wavelength of the spatial structures is primarily selected by the excitation frequency but also affected by the depth of the spatial modulation via a nonlinear resonance. These phenomena represent analogues of the Faraday patterns excited in vertically vibrated liquids.

The linear $\delta$ expansion (LDE) is applied to the critical $O(N)$ ${\varphi }^4$ three-dimensional field theory which has been widely used to study the temperature of condensation of dilute weakly interacting homogeneous Bose gases. We study the higher order convergence of the LDE as it is usually applied to this problem. We show how to improve both the large $N$ and finite $N=2$ LDE results with an efficient resummation technique which accelerates convergence. In the large $N$ limit, it reproduces the known exact result within numerical integration accuracy. In the finite $N=2$ case, our improved results support the recent numerical Monte Carlo estimates for the transition temperature.

We derive the explicit three-body contact potential for a dilute condensed Bose gas from microscopic theory. The three-body coupling constant exhibits the general form predicted by Wu [Phys. Rev. 115, 1390 (1959)] and is determined in terms of the amplitudes of two- and three-body collisions in vacuum. In the present form, the coupling constant becomes accessible to quantitative studies which should provide the crucial link between few-body collisions and the stability of condensates with attractive two-body forces.

We derive semiclassical quantization conditions for particles with spin. These generalize the Einstein-Brillouin-Keller quantization in such a way that, in addition to the Maslov correction, there appears another term which is a remnant of a non-Abelian geometric or Berry phase. This correction is interpreted in terms of a rotation angle for a classical spin vector.

It is shown that the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect is neither nonlocal nor topological in the sense of the standard magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect. It is further argued that there is a close relationship between the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Casher effect for an electrically neutral spin $-\frac{1}{2}$ particle encircling a line of charge.

Several experiments and experimental proposals for the production of macroscopic superpositions naturally lead to states of the general form $|{\varphi }_1{⟩}^{\otimes N}+|{\varphi }_2{⟩}^{\otimes N}$, where the number of subsystems $N$ is very large, but the states of the individual subsystems have large overlap, $|⟨{\varphi }_1|{\varphi }_2⟩{|}^2=1-{ϵ}^2$. We propose two different methods for assigning an effective particle number to such states, using ideal Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states of the form $|0{⟩}^{\otimes n}+|1{⟩}^{\otimes n}$ as a standard of comparison. The two methods are based on decoherence and on a distillation protocol, respectively. Both lead to an effective size $n$ of the order of $N{ϵ}^2$.

We present a probe concept for scanning near-field optical microscopy combining the excellent background suppression of aperture probes with the superior light confinement of apertureless probes. A triangular aperture at the tip of a tetrahedral waveguide (full taper angle $\sim 90°$) shows a strong field enhancement at only one rim when illuminated with light of suitable polarization. Compared to a circular aperture of equivalent size, the resolution capability is doubled without loss of brightness. For a $\sim 60\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}$ sized triangular aperture, we measured an optical resolution $<40\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}$ and a transmission of $\sim {10}^{-4}$.