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Science

Bose-Einstein Condensates Interfere and Survive

Juha Javanainen

Published Mar 24, 2005• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas is a collective state of atoms that acts like a quantum mechanical wave with a phase. In his Perspective, [Javanainen][1] highlights the demonstration by [ Saba et al .][2] that the phase difference between two condensates can be measured without destroying the condensates. The experiments open up new ways to manipulate condensates, which are macroscopic objects, as if they were quantum mechanical entities. Measurement devices based on matter-wave interferometry are a potential application. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5717/1883 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/307/5717/1945

DOI
10.1126/science.1110247

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A Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas is a collective state of atoms that acts like a quantum mechanical wave with a phase. In his Perspective, Javanainen highlights the demonstration by Saba et al . that the phase difference between two condensates can be measured without destroying the condensates. The experiments open up new ways to manipulate condensates, which are macroscopic objects, as if they were quantum mechanical entities. Measurement devices based on matter-wave interferometry are a potential application.
The observation of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in dilute atomic gases was the realization of many long-standing goals: (1) to cool neutral atoms into the ground state of the system, thus exerting ultimate control over the motion and position of atoms limited only by Heisenberg's uncertainty relation; (2) to generate a coherent sample of atoms all occupying the same quantum state (this was subsequently used to realize an atom laser, a device which generates coherent matter waves); and (3) to create a quantum fluid with properties quite different from the quantum liquids He-3 and He-4. This provides a test-ground for many-body theories of the dilute Bose gas which were developed many decades ago, but never tested experimentally.
Bose–Einstein condensates of particles behave in many ways like coherent radiation fields, and the realization of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases has opened up the experimental study of interactions between coherent matter waves. In addition, the existence of these dilute trapped quantum gases has prompted a re-examination of a number of theoretical issues. In Sec. 13.1 we discuss Josephson tunnelling of a condensate between two wells and the role of fluctuations in particle number and phase. The number and phase variables play a key role in the description of the classic interference experiment, in which two clouds of atoms are allowed to expand and overlap (Sec. 13.2). Rather surprisingly, an interference pattern is produced even though initially the two clouds are completely isolated. Density fluctuations in a Bose gas are studied in Sec. 13.3, where we relate atomic clock shifts to the two-particle correlation function. The ability to manipulate gaseous Bose–Einstein condensates by lasers has made possible the study of coherent matter wave optics and in Sec. 13.4 we describe applications of these techniques to observe solitons, Bragg scattering, and non-linear mixing of matter waves. How to characterize Bose–Einstein condensation in terms of the density matrix is the subject of Sec. 13.5, where we also consider fragmented condensates.
The experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensates in dilute alkali gases has opened up the possibility to perform time and space domain interferometry with coherent matter waves. We have exploited different configurations realizing coherent matter wave interferometers: in a first set of exeperiments we create a twofold condensate sample investigating the interplay between internal and external degrees of freedom in the matter wave analogous of a Young diffraction experiment. In a second experimental arrangement we produce a one dimensional array of condensates in an optical lattice. Upon release from the optical lattice the condensates are made to interfere, the resulting interference pattern, this time analogous to an optical diffraction grating, is used to extract information about static and dynamical properties of the sample.
Ever since the discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation in an atomic Bose gas in 1995, physicists have been searching for its analog, the fermion superfluid in atomic Fermi gases. Fermion superfluids are expected to exhibit quantum phenomena on the macroscopic scale, just as Bose-Einstein condensates do. Making use of a process called Feshbach resonance, which allows the interaction between atoms to be increased strongly, several groups have recently reported evidence on fermion superfluids. In his Perspective, [Ho][1] highlights the report by [ Chin et al .][2], who have directly observed a pairing gap, a key property of a fermion superfluid. Their interpretation is strongly supported by the theoretical calculation of [ Kinnunen et al .][3] Ho argues that the evidence accumulated so far provides an overwhelming case for the realization of fermion superfluids. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/305/5687/1114 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/305/5687/1128 [3]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/305/5687/1131
AAAS MEETINGBOSTON-- At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (publisher of Science ), held here 14 to 19 February, it was revealed that the bizarre phenomenon known as Bose-Einstein condensation may have been observed many years before the discovery that won last year's Nobel Prize in physics. Other presentations discussed the explosion in our ancestors' use of [ornamental beads][1] about 40,000 years ago and a [viral threat to newborns][2]. More stories from the meeting can be found in last week's issue (see [Human Gene Count on the Rise][3] and [A Whale of a Chain Reaction][4] ) and at [www.sciencenow.org][5] and [sageke.sciencemag.org][6]. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5560/1630b [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5560/1631a [3]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5559/1457a [4]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5559/1457b [5]: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org [6]: http://sageke.sciencemag.org