Descrizione del progetto
La ricerca analizza sistemi quantistici complessi a temperature ultrafredde
Preparare e controllare sistemi fisici complessi fino al livello quantistico è una delle maggiori sfide della fisica atomica e molecolare moderna. Questo controllo si ottiene principalmente preparando sistemi fisici a temperature prossime allo zero assoluto. Il progetto TRITRAMO, finanziato dall’UE, si propone di realizzare il prossimo obiettivo in materia di sistemi quantistici sempre più complessi a temperature ultrafredde. I ricercatori raffredderanno le molecole biatomiche controllando con precisione le loro collisioni. In caso di successo, da queste molecole biatomiche si potrà produrre un condensato di Bose-Einstein, che potrà essere impiegato per analizzare nuove fasi quantistiche. Inoltre, i ricercatori produrranno e controlleranno piccole molecole poliatomiche (trimeri e tetrameri) a partire da molecole biatomiche in condizioni controllate per comprendere meglio le loro proprietà.
Obiettivo
"A major challenge in physics is to prepare and control increasingly complex physical systems at ultracold temperatures down to the quantum level. Precise control allows analyzing the universal features of the system and, at the same time, enables tackling more complex systems. This development has led from atomic control to few- and many-body quantum systems. Similarly, atomic control has enabled the preparation and study of diatomic molecules - a development the PI of this proposal has significantly contributed to.
Our aim is to drive the next milestone on the path to increasingly complex quantum systems in the ultracold. We will make use of collisional processes and photoassociation in ""chemically stable"" atom-molecule and molecular quantum gases to progress beyond diatomic molecules to weakly bound trimers and tetramers. We will feedback the developed understanding of these small polyatomic molecules to controlling atom-molecule and molecule-molecule collisions - currently a hot topic in itself - and possibly enable the realization of the first BEC of diatomic ground-state molecules.
The experiments will start from atom-molecule quantum gas mixtures of 39K and 23Na39K and pure molecular quantum gases of 23Na39K as available in the PI’s laboratory and enable studies of weakly bound NaK2 and Na2K2. We will detect trimers and tetramers and information about their quantum state by ion spectrometry – a method from physical chemistry.
If successful, the proposal will extend significantly beyond the state of the art. It will extend the world of ultracold gases to small, weakly bound polyatomic molecules, provide insight into the building of simple molecular systems, and how few-body systems change with increasing number of atoms. It might enable precision control of diatomic molecule collisions, the longed-for BEC of polar molecules, and might unlock the full potential of polar molecules for dipolar quantum many-body physics."
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Istituzione ospitante
30167 Hannover
Germania