Cosmic rays are deemed to be generated by a process known as "Fermi acceleration" in which charged particles scatter against magnetic fluctuations in astrophysical plasmas. The process itself is, however, universal, has both classical and quantum formulations, and is at the basis of dynamical systems with interesting mathematical properties, such as the celebrated Fermi-Ulam model. Despite its effectiveness in accelerating particles, Fermi acceleration has so far eluded unambiguous verifications in laboratory settings. Here, we realize a fully controllable Fermi accelerator by colliding ultracold atoms against engineered movable potential barriers. We demonstrate that our Fermi accelerator, which is only 100 μm in size, can produce ultracold atomic jets with velocities above 0.5 m/s. Adding dissipation, we also experimentally test Bell's general argument for the ensuing energy spectra, which is at the basis of any model of cosmic ray acceleration. On the one hand, our Letter effectively opens the window to the use of cold atoms to study phenomena relevant for high energy astrophysics. On the other, the performance of our Fermi accelerator is competitive with those of best-in-class accelerating methods used in quantum technology and quantum colliders, but with substantially simpler implementation no fundamental physics limit.
Cosmic rays are deemed to be generated by a process known as "Fermi acceleration" in which charged particles scatter against magnetic fluctuations in astrophysical plasmas. The process itself is, however, universal, has both classical and quantum formulations, and is at the basis of dynamical systems with interesting mathematical properties, such as the celebrated Fermi-Ulam model. Despite its effectiveness in accelerating particles, Fermi acceleration has so far eluded unambiguous verifications in laboratory settings. Here, we realize a fully controllable Fermi accelerator by colliding ultracold atoms against engineered movable potential barriers. We demonstrate that our Fermi accelerator, which is only 100 μm in size, can produce ultracold atomic jets with velocities above 0.5 m/s. Adding dissipation, we also experimentally test Bell's general argument for the ensuing energy spectra, which is at the basis of any model of cosmic ray acceleration. On the one hand, our Letter effectively opens the window to the use of cold atoms to study phenomena relevant for high energy astrophysics. On the other, the performance of our Fermi accelerator is competitive with those of best-in-class accelerating methods used in quantum technology and quantum colliders, but with substantially simpler implementation no fundamental physics limit.
In a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT), realized for the first time in 1987, one can trap and cool neutral atoms to temperatures below a mK. The invention of this device caused a revolution in atomic physics. With an MOT collision and spectroscopy experiments could be performed with unprecedented accuracy. The main breakthrough came about 10 years later when the atom from an MOT were used to create a Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC), a source of coherent matter. All this work has been rewarded with no less than two Nobel prizes: in 1997, Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji and Phillips received the Nobel prize for the practical and theoretical development of laser cooling, and in 2001 Cornell, Ketterle and Wieman received the Nobel prize for the realization of a Bose Einstein Condensate in a dilute gas. In 1999 Killian et al. took trapped atoms in an entirely new direction when they succeeded in creating the very first Ultracold Plasma (UCP) from the atoms in an MOT. The temperature of such a plasma is more than 1000 times lower than the temperatures in conventional cold plasmas. As a result, this type of plasmas received a lot of attention, both theoretically and experimentally. So far studies of UCPs have mainly been of a fundamental kind. In this thesis we study both the fundamental aspects of atoms excited from a magneto-optical as well as the feasibility of using the electrons and ions from a UCP as a source for charged particle accelerators. The work in this thesis therefore pioneers the line between atom physics, plasma physics and accelerator physics. The first part of this thesis deals with an experimental study of the effect of an ionizing laser on cold neon atoms. Here we study the loss of atoms from a Magneto-Optical Trap caused by photionization. From these measurements we deduce a new value for the near threshold photoionization cross section 2:05±0:25x10-18 cm2 at ¿ = 351 nm and 2:05±0:25x10-18 cm2 at ¿ = 364 nm, which is a factor of four more accurate than previous measurements. The measured valuesagree with earlier measurements but differ signi¯cantly from theoretical values. The value of this cross section has a practical relevance for the realization of a continuous ion source. The second part of this thesis has been conducted at the University of Virginia. We study the role of dipole-dipole interactions in the formation of a UCP from a gas of cold Rydberg atoms, and the effect of dipole-dipole interactions on the broadening of microwave transitions. We find that the broadening scales linearly with the density en scales with the fourth power of n, the principal quantum number. These results show the great importance of dipole-dipole interactions in gas of cold Rydberg atoms and are also relevant for the possible realization of a quantum computer from Rydberg atoms. In a third part we studied the potential of using a UCP as a source for electron accelerators. This was done based upon elaborate simulations performed with the General Particle Tracer Code. The main result of these simulations is that, based upon realistic parameters, the brightness, i.e., the figure of merit for charged particle sources defined as the current divided by the emittance squared, of such a source can be up to two orders of magnitude larger than the brightness of conventional sources, which is a major advance. The emittance is a measure for the the focusability of the bunch, and scales as p T, with T the electron temperature. The increase in brightness is mainly attributed to the low electron temperatures of approximately 10 K in an UCP, resulting in an initial emittance of 0.01 mm mrad, compared to 1 mm mrad in a conventional source. With experimentally proven techniques it is possible to extract 10 nC/s from the source, which is a competitive repetition rate. In the next part we describe the design, construction and testing of the first setup with which we want to build an electron accelerator based upon cold atoms. For this we first built a vapor-cell magneto-optical trap, in which we can trap over 109 rubidium atoms with a temperature of 200 ¹K, straight from a background vapor, we also designed an atomic beam that will be implemented in the near future and can provide an increased repetition rate. In the last chapter we show how Rydberg atoms excited from an MOT, evolve into an UCP spontaneously. We extracted a minimum of 1 pC from the plasma. As a main result, we were one of the ¯rst to show how the ions and electrons from a UCP can be imaged on a phosphor screen. From these images we can deduct an upper value for the electron and the ion temperature, we extract for both the electrons and the ions an upper temperature of 40 K, when we translate this temperature to an initial emittance, we obtain a value of 0.01 mm mrad, proving the potential of the electrons extracted from atoms excited out of an MOT as a low emittance source. Our measured current of 1 ¹A is not yet competitive and results from the small electric field, but is expected to increase dramatically in the near future. We will implement a 30 kV 10 ns risetime accelerator with which it should be possible to get a current of about 50 mA. Furthermore we will implement the proper diagnostics to measure the proper charge, current and emittance. In the very last chapter we speculate charged particle sources from cold atoms might advance the state of the art in achievable brightness for both electron and ion beams.
Advances in experiments on dilute ultracold atomic gases have given us access to highly tunable quantum systems. In particular, there have been substantial improvements in achieving different kinds of interaction between atoms. As a result, utracold atomic gases oer an ideal platform to simulate many-body phenomena in condensed matter physics, and engineer other novel phenomena that are a result of the exotic interactions produced between atoms. In this dissertation, I present a series of studies that explore the physics of dilute ultracold atomic gases in different settings. In each setting, I explore a different form of the inter-particle interaction. Motivated by experiments which induce artificial spin-orbit coupling for cold fermions, I explore this system in my first project. In this project, I propose a method to perform universal quantum computation using the excitations of interacting spin-orbit coupled fermions, in which effective p-wave interactions lead to the formation of a topological superfluid. Motivated by experiments which explore the physics of exotic interactions between atoms trapped inside optical cavities, I explore this system in a second project. I calculate the phase diagram of lattice bosons trapped in an optical cavity, where the cavity modes mediates effective global range checkerboard interactions between the atoms. I compare this phase diagram with one that was recently measured experimentally. In two other projects, I explore quantum simulation of condensed matter phenomena due to spin-dependent interactions between particles. I propose a method to produce tunable spin-dependent interactions between atoms, using an optical Feshbach resonance. In one project, I use these spin-dependent interactions in an ultracold Bose-Fermi system, and propose a method to produce the Kondo model. I propose an experiment to directly observe the Kondo effect in this system. In another project, I propose using lattice bosons with a large hyperfine spin, which have Feshbach-induced spin-dependent interactions, to produce a quantum dimer model. I propose an experiment to detect the ground state in this system. In a final project, I develop tools to simulate the dynamics of fermionic superfluids in which fermions interact via a short-range interaction.
We explore collisions of atomic particles in two different regimes. In the first part of this work, we study atom-atom collisions of alkali metals at ultracold temperatures and conditions typically found in modern experiments. Feshbach resonances induced by external magnetic fields present a way to change collisional properties and exhibit control over cold collisions. We perform a fully quantum coupled-channel calculation in molecular orbital formalism to calculate collisional properties and characterize Feshbach resonances in ultracold Li+Na and Li+Rb systems. Furthermore, we use the results of these calculations as a foundation to propose a novel scheme for formation of stable ultracold molecules in their lowest rovibrational level. The formation scheme relies on the fact that the photoassociation rate becomes greatly enhanced in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance, resulting in a large increase of the number of produced excited molecules. Efficient production of stable ultracold molecules is a prerequisite for realization of various proposed platforms for quantum computing with neutral atoms and molecules. In addition, we suggest a way to exploit specifics of the photoassociation rate behavior near its minimum for a precision measurement experiment to detect hypothetical variation of the electron-proton mass ratio in time. ^ The second part of this study examines ion-atom collisions in our solar system. Highly charged ions present in the solar wind collide with neutrals, capture one or more electrons into high excited states and deexcite, radiating energetic X-ray and UV photons. In particular, we study X-ray emissions charge-exchange collisions between fully stripped C6+, N7+ and O8+ solar wind ions and heliospheric hydrogen. We analytically solve the two-center Schrödinger equation and construct electronic potential curves for the aforementioned molecular ions. Subsequently, we compute polarization of the X-rays emitted in a single-step deexcitation following charge-exchange collisions and construct a polarization map for the ecliptic plane, as observed from Earth. Our analysis indicates that the heliospheric charge-exchange X-rays are slightly polarized, with the polarization P close to ten percent for the optimal line-of-sight. ^
A major objective of the strong ongoing drive to realize quantum simulators of gauge theories is achieving the capability to probe collider-relevant physics on them. In this regard, a highly pertinent and sought-after application is the controlled collisions of elementary and composite particles, as well as the scattering processes in their wake. Here, we propose particle-collision experiments in a cold-atom quantum simulator for a 1 + 1 D (one spatial and one temporal dimension) U(1) lattice gauge theory with a tunable topological θ term, where we demonstrate an experimentally feasible protocol to impart momenta to elementary (anti)particles and their meson composites. We numerically benchmark the collisions of moving wave packets for both elementary and composite particles, uncovering a plethora of rich phenomena, such as oscillatory string dynamics in the wake of elementary (anti)particle collisions due to confinement. We also probe string inversion and entropy production processes across Coleman’s phase transition through far-from-equilibrium quenches. We further demonstrate how collisions of composite particles unveil their internal structure. Our work paves the way towards the experimental investigation of collision dynamics in state-of-the-art quantum simulators of gauge theories, and sets the stage for microscopic understanding of collider-relevant physics in these platforms. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Atoms, unlike photons, travel at velocities readily attainable in the laboratory, making possible novel atom optical devices based on optical elements which move relative to the atomic beam. We report design studies of a device to accelerate or decelerate and simultaneously monochromatize a helium atomic beam. A helium supersonic free-jet (v equals 950 m/s, (Delta) v equals 5 m/s, FWHM) is reflected from a moving surface to produce an output beam is continuously tunable in velocity from epithermal (2000 m/s) to ultra-slow (ca. 1 m/s, De Broglie wavelength 1000 angstroms). The decelerator is highly dispersive in the low velocity regime, making the collimated ultra-slow output beam nearly monochromatic, i.e. ultra-cold. Measured properties of an actual supersonic helium free-jet expansion were used in Monte Carlo simulations of the decelerator to predict the attainable decelerated beam properties. Ultra- slow beams of usable intensity at T < 100 nK appear attainable. Finite element stress calculations for a magnetically suspended rotor verify that the necessary reflector velocities (475 m/s) can be safely achieved. Possible applications of an ultra-cold helium beam might include gas-surface scattering experiments to probe `quantum reflection' of atoms from surfaces and to measure gas- surface bound states of exceptionally low binding energy, thereby testing the contributions of retardation to the gas- surface potential.