Uniform quantum gases: A new tool for many-body physics

Jean Dalibard, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France

The recent realization of uniform atomic gases confined in “square box” potentials has opened a number of perspectives in the physics of quantum fluids. These uniform systems are particularly relevant for the study of critical phenomena, where one expects a divergence of correlation lengths, as well as for low dimensional fluids, where the parameters governing the quasi-long range order depend on atomic density.

In this talk I will describe two sets of experiments recently performed in our group with uniform gases of 87Rb: (i) The investigation of Kibble-Zurek physics at the crossover between 3D and 2D, and (ii) the use of uniform 2D gases as a new medium for the study of atom-light interaction.

This work has been performed in collaboration with Monika Aidelsburger, Jérôme Beugnon, Tom Bienaimé, Lauriane Chomaz, Laura Corman, Rémi Desbuquois, Katharina Kleinlein, Sylvain Nascimbene, David Perconte, Raphaël Saint-Jalm, Jean-Loup Ville and Christof Weitenberg. It is supported by the Synergy grant UQUAM, by ANR and by IFRAF.