Cold Atom Laboratory
The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is an experimental instrument on board the ISS, which launched in 2018. It creates an extremely cold microgravity environment in order to study behaviour of atoms in these conditions. Timeline The CAL was developed at JPL in Pasadena, California. It was originally scheduled for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2017. It was then delayed until a scheduled launch on a SpaceX CRS-12 rocket in August 2017. It was finally launched on May 21, 2018. The initial mission had a duration of 12 months with up to five years of extended operation. In January 2020 it underwent hardware upgrades, which were carried out over an eight-day period by astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir under the supervision of ground controllers. The upgrade included an atom interferometer which can be used to study the equivalence principle. In July 2021, another upgrade by astronaut Megan McArthur gave CAL the ability to work with ultracold potassium a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Few-body Systems
In mechanics, a few-body system consists of a small number of well-defined structures or point particles. Quantum mechanics In quantum mechanics, examples of few-body systems include light nuclear systems (that is, few-nucleon bound and scattering states), small molecules, light atoms (such as helium in an external electric field), atomic collisions, and quantum dots. A fundamental difficulty in describing few-body systems is that the Schrödinger equation and the classical equations of motion are not analytically solvable for more than two mutually interacting particles even when the underlying forces are precisely known. This is known as the few-body problem. For some three-body systems an exact solution can be obtained iteratively through the Faddeev equations. It can be shown that under certain conditions Faddeev equations should lead to Efimov effect. Some special cases of three-body systems are amenable to analytical solutions (or nearly so) - by special treatments - ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bose–Einstein Condensates
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Bose–Einstein may refer to: * Bose–Einstein condensate ** Bose–Einstein condensation (network theory) * Bose–Einstein correlations * Bose–Einstein statistics In quantum statistics, Bose–Einstein statistics (B–E statistics) describes one of two possible ways in which a collection of non-interacting, indistinguishable particles may occupy a set of available discrete energy states at thermodynamic eq ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Timeline Of Low-temperature Technology
The following is a timeline of low-temperature technology and cryogenic technology (refrigeration down to –273.15 °C, –459.67 °F or 0 K). It also lists important milestones in thermometry, thermodynamics, statistical physics and calorimetry, that were crucial in development of low temperature systems. Prior to the 19th century * – Zimri-Lim, ruler of Mari in Syria commanded the construction of one of the first ice houses near the Euphrates. * – The yakhchal (meaning "ice pit" in Persian) is an ancient Persian type of refrigerator. The structure was formed from a mortar resistant to heat transmission, in the shape of a dome. Snow and ice was stored beneath the ground, effectively allowing access to ice even in hot months and allowing for prolonged food preservation. Often a badgir was coupled with the yakhchal in order to slow the heat loss. Modern refrigerators are still called yakhchal in Persian. * - Hero of Alexandria knew of the principle that cert ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slow Light
Slow light is the propagation of an optical pulse or other modulation of an optical carrier at a very low group velocity. Slow light occurs when a propagating pulse is substantially slowed by the interaction with the medium in which the propagation takes place. Group velocities below c were known to be possible as far back as 1880, but could not be realized in a useful manner until 1991, when Stephen Harris and collaborators demonstrated electromagnetically induced transparency in trapped strontium atoms. Reduction of the speed of light by a factor of 165 was reported in 1995. In 1998, Danish physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau led a combined team from Harvard University and the Rowland Institute for Science which realized much lower group velocities of light. They succeeded in slowing a beam of light to about 17 meters per second. In 2004, researchers at UC Berkeley first demonstrated slow light in a semiconductor, with a group velocity 9.6 kilometers per second. Hau and her colle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Macroscopic Quantum Self-trapping
In quantum mechanics, macroscopic quantum self-trapping is when two Bose-Einstein condensates weakly linked by an energy barrier which particles can tunnel through, nevertheless end up with a higher average number of bosons on one side of the junction than the other. The junction of two Bose–Einstein condensates is mostly analogous to a Josephson junction, which is made of two superconductors linked by a non-conducting barrier. However, superconducting Josephson junctions do not display macroscopic quantum self-trapping, and thus macroscopic quantum self-tunneling is a distinguishing feature of Bose-Einstein condensate junctions. Self-trapping occurs when the self-interaction energy \Lambda between the Bosons is larger than a critical value called \Lambda^\text_c. \Lambda^\text_c = \frac It was first described in 1997. It has been observed in Bose-Einsten condensates of exciton-polaritons, and predicted for a condensate of magnons. While the tunneling of a particle through cl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena
Macroscopic quantum phenomena are processes showing quantum behavior at the macroscopic scale, rather than at the atomic scale where quantum effects are prevalent. The best-known examples of macroscopic quantum phenomena are superfluidity and superconductivity; other examples include the quantum Hall effect and topological order. Since 2000 there has been extensive experimental work on quantum gases, particularly Bose–Einstein condensates. Between 1996 and 2016 six Nobel Prizes were given for work related to macroscopic quantum phenomena. Macroscopic quantum phenomena can be observed in superfluid helium and in superconductors, but also in dilute quantum gases, dressed photons such as polaritons and in laser light. Although these media are very different, they are all similar in that they show macroscopic quantum behavior, and in this respect they all can be referred to as quantum fluids. Quantum phenomena are generally classified as macroscopic when the quantum state ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bose–Einstein Condensation Of Excitons
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Bose–Einstein may refer to: * Bose–Einstein condensate ** Bose–Einstein condensation (network theory) * Bose–Einstein correlations * Bose–Einstein statistics In quantum statistics, Bose–Einstein statistics (B–E statistics) describes one of two possible ways in which a collection of non-interacting, indistinguishable particles may occupy a set of available discrete energy states at thermodynamic eq ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Network Theory Approach
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bose–Einstein Correlations
In physics, Bose–Einstein correlations are correlations between identical bosons. They have important applications in astronomy, optics, particle and nuclear physics. From intensity interferometry to Bose–Einstein correlations The interference between two (or more) waves establishes a correlation between these waves. In particle physics, in particular, where to each particle there is associated a wave, we encounter thus interference and correlations between two (or more) particles, described mathematically by second or higher order correlation functions.The correlation function of order n defines the transition amplitudes between states containing n particles. These correlations have quite specific properties for identical particles. We then distinguish Bose–Einstein correlations for bosons and Fermi–Dirac correlations for fermions. While in Fermi–Dirac second order correlations the particles are antibunched, in Bose–Einstein correlations (BEC)In this article the a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atom Laser
An atom laser is a coherent state of propagating atoms. They are created out of a Bose–Einstein condensate of atoms that are output coupled using various techniques. Much like an optical laser, an atom laser is a coherent beam that behaves like a wave. There has been some argument that the term "atom laser" is misleading. Indeed, "laser" stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation" which is not particularly related to the physical object called an atom laser, and perhaps describes more accurately the Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC). The terminology most widely used in the community today is to distinguish between the BEC, typically obtained by evaporation in a conservative trap, from the atom laser itself, which is a propagating atomic wave obtained by extraction from a previously realized BEC. Some ongoing experimental research tries to obtain directly an atom laser from a "hot" beam of atoms without making a trapped BEC first. Introduction The first pu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Atom Interferometer
An atom interferometer is an interferometer which uses the wave character of atoms. Similar to optical interferometers, atom interferometers measure the difference in phase between atomic matter waves along different paths. Atom interferometers have many uses in fundamental physics including measurements of the gravitational constant, the fine-structure constant, the universality of free fall, and have been proposed as a method to detect gravitational waves. They also have applied uses as accelerometers, rotation sensors, and gravity gradiometers. Overview Interferometry inherently depends on the wave nature of the object. As pointed out by de Broglie in his PhD thesis, particles, including atoms, can behave like waves (the so-called wave–particle duality, according to the general framework of quantum mechanics). More and more high precision experiments now employ atom interferometers due to their short de Broglie wavelength. Some experiments are now even using molecules to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |