Bulletin of the American Physical Society
48th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume 62, Number 8
Monday–Friday, June 5–9, 2017; Sacramento, California
Session A1: Prize SessionInvited
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Chair: Steven Rolston, University of Maryland/JQI Room: Sheraton Grand Nave Ballroom |
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:00AM - 8:30AM |
A1.00001: APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research Talk: Three Seeds in the Flowering of Quantum Science Invited Speaker: Daniel Kleppner The award of the 2017 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research attests to the vitality of our field and its appreciation by the broad physics community. Having watched the research evolve over many decades, I will describe how a few of today’s frontiers grew from tentative suggestions into flourishing fields of research. This talk is particularly aimed at newcomers who may be bewildered by the range of activities today and wonder how such things get started. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:30AM - 9:00AM |
A1.00002: I.I. Rabi in Atomic, Molecular \& Optical Physics Prize Talk: Strongly Interacting Fermi Gases of Atoms and Molecules Invited Speaker: Martin Zwierlein Strongly interacting fermions govern physics at all length scales, from nuclear matter to modern electronic materials and neutron stars. The interplay of the Pauli principle with strong interactions can give rise to exotic properties that we do not understand even at a qualitative level. In recent years, ultracold Fermi gases of atoms have emerged as a new type of strongly interacting fermionic matter that can be created and studied in the laboratory with exquisite control. Feshbach resonances allow for unitarity limited interactions, leading to scale invariance, universal thermodynamics and a superfluid phase transition already at 17\% of the Fermi temperature. Trapped in optical lattices, fermionic atoms realize the Fermi-Hubbard model, believed to capture the essence of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Here, a microscope allows for single-atom, single-site resolved detection of density and spin correlations, revealing the Pauli hole as well as anti-ferromagnetic and doublon-hole correlations. Novel states of matter are predicted for fermions interacting via long-range dipolar interactions. As an intriguing candidate we created stable fermionic molecules of NaK at ultralow temperatures featuring large dipole moments and second-long spin coherence times. In some of the above examples the experiment outperformed the most advanced computer simulations of many-fermion systems, giving hope for a new level of understanding of strongly interacting fermions. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:00AM - 9:30AM |
A1.00003: Herbert P. Broida Prize Talk: A single Rydberg electron in a Bose-Einstein condensate: from two to few to many-body physics Invited Speaker: Tilman Pfau Modern quantum scattering theory was developed in the context of Rydberg spectroscopy in 1934 by Enrico Fermi. He showed that for slow electrons the scattering from polarizable atoms via a 1/r\textasciicircum 4 potential is purely s-wave and can be described by a Fermi pseudopotential and a scattering length. To study this interaction Rydberg electrons are well suited as they are slow and trapped by the charged nucleus. In a high pressure discharge Amaldi and Segre, observed a line shift proportional to the scattering length [1]. At ultracold temperatures one can ask the opposite question: What does a Rydberg electron do to the neutral atom sitting in the electronic orbit? We found that one, two or many ground state atoms can be trapped in the mean-field potential created by the Rydberg electron, leading to so called ultra-long range Rydberg molecules [2]. I will explain this novel molecular binding mechanism and the properties of these exotic molecules. At higher Rydberg states the spatial extent of the Rydberg electron orbit is increasing. For principal quantum numbers n in the range of 100-200 up to several ten thousand ultracold ground state atoms can be located inside one Rydberg atom, When we excite a single Rydberg electron in a Bose-Einstein Condensate, the orbital size of which becomes comparable to the size of the BEC we observe the coupling between the electron and phonons in the BEC [3]. [1] E. Amaldi and E. Segre, Nature 133, 141 (1934) [2] C. H. Greene, et al., PRL 85, 2458 (2000); V. Bendkowsky et al., Nature 458, 1005 (2009) [3] J . B. Balewski, et al., Nature 502, 664 (2013) [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:30AM - 10:00AM |
A1.00004: Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution Prize Talk: Research and Teaching through high-precision spectroscopy of heavy atoms Invited Speaker: Tiku Majumder In recent decades, substantial experimental effort has centered on heavy (high-Z) atomic and molecular systems for atomic-physics-based tests of standard model physics, through (for example) measurements of atomic parity nonconservation and searches for permanent electric dipole moments. In all of this work, a crucial role is played by atomic theorists, whose accurate wave function calculations are essential in connecting experimental observables to tests of relevant fundamental physics parameters. At Williams College, with essential contributions from dozens of undergraduate students, we have pursued a series of precise atomic structure measurements in heavy metal atoms such as thallium, indium, and lead. These include measurements of hyperfine structure, transition amplitudes, and atomic polarizability. This work, involving diode lasers, heated vapor cells, and an atomic beam apparatus, has both tested the accuracy and helped guide the refinement of new atomic theory calculations. I will discuss a number of our recent experimental results, emphasizing the role played by students and the opportunities that have been afforded for research-training in this undergraduate environment. [Preview Abstract] |
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