Research Timour Ichmoukhamedov

Abstract

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can be thought of as a gas of atoms which undergoes a transition into a specific phase at very low temperatures. In this new phase the atomic gas exhibits various peculiar properties such as superfluidity, quantized vortices and many other phenomena not expected in normal gases. One such interesting problem is that of an impurity (usually an atom of a different species) moving through a BEC. This impurity will disturb the gas around it and create a dip of lower density which it will have to drag along. This will modify the properties of the impurity and for example change the effective mass, analogous to a person having more trouble walking on a trampoline and dragging along the deformation in the fabric. Such an impurity together with the dip in density as a whole is called a Bose-polaron. In 2016 two experiments first realized condensates that contained many Bose-polarons and gave rise to an active discussion in the theoretical community. It has been shown that for an accurate theoretical description of the polaron additional correction terms had to be taken into account which were not present in previous discussions. This has been recently done for a description of single Bose-polarons. In this research these correction terms will be included to describe a system of many polarons which in combination has not been done before. The results found here will also be extended to other atomic gases called ultracold fermionic gases.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Tempere Jacques
• Fellow: Ichmoukhamedov Timour

Research team(s)

• Theory of quantum systems and complex systems

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) can be thought of as a gas of atoms which undergoes a transition into a specific phase at very low temperatures. In this new phase the atomic gas exhibits various peculiar properties such as superfluidity, quantized vortices and many other phenomena not expected in normal gases. One such interesting problem is that of an impurity (usually an atom of a different species) moving through a BEC. This impurity will disturb the gas around it and create a dip of lower density which it will have to drag along. This will modify the properties of the impurity and for example change the effective mass, analogous to a person having more trouble walking on a trampoline and dragging along the deformation in the fabric. Such an impurity together with the dip in density as a whole is called a Bose-polaron. In 2016 two experiments first realized condensates that contained many Bose-polarons and gave rise to an active discussion in the theoretical community. It has been shown that for an accurate theoretical description of the polaron additional correction terms had to be taken into account which were not present in previous discussions. This has been recently done for a description of single Bose-polarons. In this research these correction terms will be included to describe a system of many polarons which in combination has not been done before. The results found here will also be extended to other atomic gases called ultracold fermionic gases.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Tempere Jacques
• Fellow: Ichmoukhamedov Timour

Research team(s)

• Theory of quantum systems and complex systems

Project type(s)

• Research Project