Extension of the Generalized Hydrodynamics to the Dimensional Crossover Regime.

In an effort to address integrability breaking in cold gas experiments, we extend the integrable hydrodynamics of the Lieb-Liniger model with two additional components representing the population of atoms in the first and second transverse excited states, thus enabling a description of quasi-1D condensates. Collisions between different components are accounted for through the inclusion of a Boltzmann-type collision integral in the hydrodynamic equation. Contrary to standard generalized hydrodynamics, our extended model captures thermalization of the condensate at a rate consistent with experimental observations from a quantum Newton's cradle setup.

Designing arbitrary one-dimensional potentials on an atom chip.

We use laser light shaped by a digital micro-mirror device to realize arbitrary optical dipole potentials for one-dimensional (1D) degenerate Bose gases of Rb trapped on an atom chip. Superposing optical and magnetic potentials combines the high flexibility of optical dipole traps with the advantages of magnetic trapping, such as effective evaporative cooling and the application of radio-frequency dressed state potentials. As applications, we present a 160 µm long box-like potential with a central tuneable barrier, a box-like potential with a sinusoidally modulated bottom and a linear confining potential.

Two-level masers as heat-to-work converters.

Heat engines, which cyclically transform heat into work, are ubiquitous in technology. Lasers and masers may be viewed as heat engines that rely on population inversion or coherence in the active medium. Here we put forward an unconventional paradigm of a remarkably simple and robust electromagnetic heat-powered engine that bears basic differences to any known maser or laser: The proposed device makes use of only one Raman transition and does not rely on population inversion or coherence in its two-level working medium.

Experimental characterization of a quantum many-body system via higher-order correlations.

Quantum systems can be characterized by their correlations. Higher-order (larger than second order) correlations, and the ways in which they can be decomposed into correlations of lower order, provide important information about the system, its structure, its interactions and its complexity. The measurement of such correlation functions is therefore an essential tool for reading, verifying and characterizing quantum simulations.

Experimental observation of a generalized Gibbs ensemble.

The description of the non-equilibrium dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems within the framework of statistical mechanics is a fundamental open question. Conventional thermodynamical ensembles fail to describe the large class of systems that exhibit nontrivial conserved quantities, and generalized ensembles have been predicted to maximize entropy in these systems. We show experimentally that a degenerate one-dimensional Bose gas relaxes to a state that can be described by such a generalized ensemble.

Metropolis-Hastings thermal state sampling for numerical simulations of Bose-Einstein condensates.

We demonstrate the application of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to sampling of classical thermal states of one-dimensional Bose-Einstein quasicondensates in the classical fields approximation, both in untrapped and harmonically trapped case. The presented algorithm can be easily generalized to higher dimensions and arbitrary trap geometry. For truncated Wigner simulations the quantum noise can be added with conventional methods (half a quantum of energy in every mode).

Giant vacuum forces via transmission lines.

Quantum electromagnetic fluctuations induce forces between neutral particles, known as the van der Waals and Casimir interactions. These fundamental forces, mediated by virtual photons from the vacuum, play an important role in basic physics and chemistry and in emerging technologies involving, e.g.

Non-additivity in laser-illuminated many-atom systems.

We show that atoms subject to laser radiation may form a non-additive many-body system on account of their long-range forces, when the atoms are trapped in the vicinity of a fiber with a Bragg grating. When the laser frequency is inside the grating's bandgap but very close to its edge, we find that the range and strength of the laser-induced interaction becomes substantially enhanced, due to the large density of states near the edge, while the competing process of scattering to the fiber is inhibited. The dynamics of the atomic positions in this system conforms to a prominent model of statistical physics which exhibits slow relaxation.

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations of ultracold atomic gases.

We demonstrate that collective continuous variables of two species of trapped ultracold bosonic gases can be Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-correlated (entangled) via inherent interactions between the species. We propose two different schemes for creating these correlations--a dynamical scheme and a static scheme analogous to two-mode squeezing in quantum optics. We quantify the correlations by using known measures of entanglement and study the effect of finite temperature on these quantum correlations.