Physics 23800 Atomic Physics
Day/Time: MWF 11:30 - 12:20 pm
Location: KPTC 103
Lecturer: Cheng Chin, cchin@uchicago.edu
Office: GCIS 107
Office Hours: TuTh 10:30 - 11:30 am (except for 11/7 and 11/21)
Website: http://ultracold.uchicago.edu/phys_winter13
Class outline:
Q1: New Physics at the 18th significant digit?
Wk 1 09/30 M Overview: How precise can a measurement be?
Wk 1 10/02 W Lecture 1: Atom-photon interactions (Foot: 7.1, 7.2)
Wk 1 10/04 F Lecture 2: Ramsey spectroscopy (Foot: 7.3, 7.4) HW1
Wk 2 10/07 M Discussion 1: Atom interferometry vs. photon interferometry
Wk 2 10/09 W P&A (Principle and applications): Atomic clock
Wk 2 10/11 F P&A: Ionic clock HW2
Wk 3 10/14 M Discussion 2: Precision of matterwave clocks
Wk 3 10/16 W Discussion 3: Why does a single ion work as well as many atoms?
Q2: How do you control atoms remotely?
Wk 3 10/18 F Lecture 3: Radiation force (Foot: 7.5, 7.6) HW1due HW3
Wk 3 10/21 M Lecture 4: Dipole force (Foot: 7.7,7.8, 9.5, 9.6)
Wk 3 10/23 W Discussion 4: What is dipole force in the photon picture?
Wk 4 10/25 F Mid-Term1 HW2due HW4
Wk 4 10/28 M Lecture 5: Full QED treatment (Cohen-Tanouji)
Wk 4 10/30 W Discussion 5: What exactly did we do?
Q3: Path from 300 Kelvin to 1 nano-Kelvin?
Wk 5 11/01 F Lecture 6: Doppler cooling (Foot: 9.1, 9.2, 9.3) HW3due HW5
Wk 5 11/04 M Presentation 1: Magnetic traps and other cooling schemes
Wk 5 11/06 W P&A: Magneto-optical trap (1997 Prize) (Foot: 9.4,9.7)
Wk 6 11/08 F Discussion 6: Bose-Einstein condensation and (2001 Prize) (Foot: 10.3, 10.4) HW4due HW6
Wk 6 11/11 M Presentation 2: Experiments that distinguish Bose condendates from normal gas?
Q4: How and what can cold atoms simulate other particles?
Wk 6 11/13 W Lecture 8: Optical lattices and band structure
Wk 7 11/15 F Lecture 9: Superfluid-Mott insulator transition HW5due
Wk 8 11/18 M P&A: Superfluid to Mott insulator transition (I) (Prof. Simon)
Wk 8 11/20 W Overview: Quantum simulation vs. quantum computation
Wk 8 11/22 F Midterm 2 HW6due HW7
Wk 9 11/25 M Lecture 10: Quantum dynamics
Wk 9 11/27 W Discussion 7: How far can quantum simulation go?
Wk 1012/02 M Lab tour (Dr. Colin Parker and Dr. Eric Hazlett)
Wk 1012/04 W Special Topic: (Prof. Simon) HW7due
Textbook (Recommended) Atomic Physics by Christopher J. Foot, Oxford, 2005
Evaluation Problem sets: 1/3 Midterms: 1/3 Discussions+Presentation: 1/3
Overview session Presentation given by the lecturer to outline the fundamental concept and the progress of the field.
P&A session Introduction and in depth discussion on the working principle and applications of one particular system.
Lecture Introduction of theoretical concept, mathematical formalism, and technique of calculation.
Discussion session Each student (and the lecturer) are expected to raise one or more questions related to the previous classes. One chair will be assigned and lead the session by either answering the question himself/herself or leading the discussion toward the answer.
Discussion session evaluation:
Chair: + 10~20 points
Ask a question: +5~10 points
Answer a question that satisfies everybody: +5~10 points
Upper limit for each discussion session is 30 points.
Presentations (11/04 and 11/11)
In the presentation sessions, please present idea or answer to the posted questions discussed in the class. (You may ask Cheng for hints.) The presentation should provide a pedagogical overview of the topic for the whole class, and your own assessment on the relevance of your answer to the question. Each presentation is about 15 minutes plus Q&A.
Evaluation: 20~50 points/person.
Homeworks and midterms Each homework contains 2~3 questions; late policy: -10% per day. Midterms contain 2~3 questions (1 hour, open book, no discussion).