Atomic Motion in Magneto-Optical Lattices

Shohini Ghose
Optical Sciences and Engineering
University of New Mexico

Ultra-cold atoms in magneto-optical double-well potentials provide a very clean setting in which to study the quantum and classical dynamics of a nonlinear system with multiple degrees of freedom. In this system, entanglement at the quantum level and chaos at the classical level arise from non-separable couplings between the atomic spin and its center of mass motion. The underlying classical chaotic dynamics of this system will be discussed and the distinct predictions of the classical versus quantum dynamics for an initial state that has been prepared in current experiments will be investigated. The coupling between the spin and the motional subsystems, which are very different in nature from one another, also leads to new and interesting issues regarding the transition from regular quantum dynamics to chaotic classical motion.

12:00 p.m., Friday, November 30, 2001

A light lunch will immediately follow the talk.

Room 184, Physics and Astronomy Building
800 Yale Blvd NE, Albuquerque NM 87131