The field of quantum gases or ultracold atoms is the fastest expanding and most interdisciplinary field in physics today. The experimental branch of this exciting new field uses the techniques of atomic, molecular and optical physics to study manybody systems consisting of extremely cold-trapped atoms. These are condensed matter systems whose constituents have well-understood microscopic interactions. At sufficiently low temperatures, the large de Broglie wavelengths of the atoms allow these systems to exhibit quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale.
The theoretical branch of this field is completely interdisciplinary, attracting top scientists from atomic, condensed matter, high energy and nuclear physics, as well as from quantum optics and quantum information. The Cold Atom Physics group at Ohio State has established itself as one of the world’s top theory groups in this area.
Cold Atom Physics faculty
Eric Braaten, Professor
PhD, University of Wisconsin, 1981
Strongly interacting quantum gases
Bose-Einstein condensates
Few-body physics for atoms with large scattering lengths
Efimov states
Richard Furnstahl, Professor
PhD, Stanford University, 1986
Effective field theory for many-body systems
Pairing mechanisms for Fermi gases
Density functional theory
Tin-Lun (Jason) Ho, Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
PhD, Cornell University, 1977
Fundamental issues in dilute quantum gases:
- scalar and spinor Bose condensates
- Fermi gases with large spin
- mixtures of Bose and Fermi gases
- quantum gases in optical lattices and in rapidly rotating potentials
- boson mesoscopics
- processing quantum information with spinor Bose condensates
Quantum Hall effect with internal degrees of
freedom
Strongly correlated electron systems
Quantum fluids
Mohit Randeria, Professor
PhD, Cornell University, 1987
Strongly interacting quantum gases
BEC-BCS crossover in Fermi gases
Optical lattices
Nandini Trivedi, Professor
PhD, Cornell University, 1987
Fermions and bosons in optical lattices
BCS-BEC crossover
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations of cold atoms
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