From Galileo to Heisenberg
This picture is a wonderful example of the Unity of Physics. The free falling condensate covers distances rising in time according to Galileo’s law s=gt2
(and showing a parabolic trajectory here).
This picture is also a tribute to Werner Heisenberg.
Initially, the atomic cloud is more squeezed in the vertical direction than in the horizontal one. But, the better determination of the position in space requires
A worse determination of velocity. In fact, the velocity distribution is wider in the vertical
direction, so the cloud diffuses more.
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A magnetic trap, below a cubic glass cell for cooling atoms |
The experimental set-up for Bose-Einstein condensation. The tower in front is the magneto-optical trap and the magnetic trap, into which atoms pre-cooled in MOT are transferred. |
Antezza, Mauro; Pitaevskii, Lev P; Stringari, Sandro
We calculate the effect of the interaction between an optically active material and a Bose-Einstein condensate on the collective oscillations of the condensate. We provide explicit expressions for the frequency shift of the center of mass oscillation in terms of the potential generated by the substrate and of the density profile of the gas. The form of the potential is discussed in details and various regimes (van der Waals-London, Casimir-Polder and thermal regimes) are identified as a function of the distance of atoms from the surface.
Submitted to PRA
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Studies of this new, exotic, supercool form of matter allow to understand numerous other
phenomena, from high temperature super-conductors, to neutron stars or the quark-gluon plasma of the early
Universe. |