Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2010. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed April 21, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-149).

This dissertation presents the development and implementation of two novel experimental techniques for controlling atom number and phase-space density in cold atomic gases. The first experiment demonstrates the method of single-photon cooling, an optical realization of Maxwell's demon, using an ensemble of rubidium atoms. Single-photon cooling increases the phase-space density of a cloud of magnetically trapped atoms, reducing the entropy of the ensemble by irreversibly transferring atoms through a one-way wall via a single-photon scattering event. While traditional laser cooling methods are limited in their applicability to a small number of atoms, single-photon cooling is much more general and should in principle be applicable to almost all atoms in the periodic table. The experiment described in this dissertation demonstrates a one-dimensional implementation of the cooling scheme. Complete phase-space compression along this dimension is observed. The limitations on the cooling performance are shown to be given by trap dynamics in the magnetic trap. The second part of this dissertation is dedicated to the experiment built to control the atom number of a degenerate Fermi gas on a single particle level. Creating Fock states of atoms with ultra-high fidelity is a mandatory step for studying quantum entanglement on a single atom level. The experimental technique implemented to control the atom number in this experiment is called laser culling. Decreasing the trapping potential reduces the atom number in a controlled way, giving precise control over the number of atoms remaining in the trap. This dissertation details the design and construction of this experiment and reports on the progress towards the creation of neutral lithium Fock states. / text

The variation of a magnetic field in the vicinity of a zero-energy resonance allows highly vibrationally excited molecules (‘Feshbach molecules’) to be produced from an ultracold atomic gas. In this thesis, we study the dynamics of this process. We begin by studying the dissociation of Feshbach molecules, showing that in the limit of a sudden jump the shape of the spectrum of dissociated atoms can act as a probe of the zero-energy resonance. For some resonances, such jumps are within reach of current experiments. We also study the intermediate region between sudden jumps and asymptotically wide, linear ramps. It is shown from a precise derivation how the latter limit leads to a universal spectrum with a shape independent of the implementation of the two-body physics, provided that the near-resonant scattering properties are correctly modelled. We then turn to the dynamics of Feshbach molecule production from thermal and condensed gases. Our microscopic quantum dynamics approach includes the exact twobody evolution as an input to the many-body calculations. We show that in the long-time limit, and the Markov limit for the interactions, the non-Markovian Boltzmann equation (NMBE) we derive for the one-body density matrix reduces to the normal Boltzmann equation. In the limit of short times and small depletion of the atomic gas, the molecule production efficiency can be calculated by thermally averaging the two-body transition probability density. This thermal averaging technique is applied to studies of the formation of Feshbach molecules using a magnetic field modulation that is near-resonant with the molecular bound state energy. The continuum is shown to have a significant effect on both the dynamics and efficiency of this process. We examine the dependence of the molecule production efficiency on the duration, amplitude and frequency of the modulation, as well as the temperature and density of the gas. This method of producing molecules is effective for a wide range of bound state energies, but requires sufficient variation of the two-body energy levels with magnetic field. Lastly, we implement the NMBE for the case of a fast linear ramp across a Feshbach resonance. The solution of this equation is made feasible by including a large part of the required computation in the kernel, which is calculated in advance. The NMBE allows predictions of the molecule production efficiency which go beyond the thermal averaging technique by accounting for the depletion and rethermalisation of the continuum. In the limit of small depletions, the two approaches give the same results. As the depletion increases, the two approaches differ due to many-body effects limiting the maximum possible molecule production efficiency. We have observed this in our simulations by considering higher-density gases. We have therefore shown the suitability and practicability of this beyond mean-field approach for application to further problems in the production of Feshbach molecules from ultracold gases.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第22546号 / 人博第949号 / 新制||人||226(附属図書館) / 2019||人博||949(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科相関環境学専攻 / (主査)准教授 木下 俊哉, 教授 吉田 鉄平, 教授 森成 隆夫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

A galaxy's angular momentum is known to be correlated with its morphology: at a given mass, spiral galaxies have higher angular momenta than elliptical galaxies. A galaxy's angular momentum is also largely set by its formation history: in particular, how much gas and the kinematic state of the gas that both accretes onto it and is expelled in galactic outflows from AGN and supernovae. All gas inflowing to and outflowing from the galaxy interacts with gas in the region surrounding the galaxy called the circumgalactic medium (CGM), which means at a fundamental level, the CGM controls the angular momentum of the galaxy. Therefore, to really understand the origins of galactic angular momentum, it is necessary to understand the angular momentum of the CGM itself. In this dissertation, I present a series of projects aimed at studying angular momentum in the CGM using the Illustris and IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulations suites. In an appendix, I also present a project on searching a survey of neutral hydrogen for previously undetected ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in and around the Milky Way's CGM. First, to understand how present-day galaxies acquire their observed angular momentum, I analyze the evolution of the angular momentum of Lagrangian gas mass elements as they accrete onto dark matter halos, condense into Milky Way-scale galaxies, and join the z=0 stellar phase of those galaxies. I find that physical feedback from the galaxy is essential in order to produce reasonable values of galactic angular momentum, and that most of the effects of this feedback occur in the CGM, necessitating studying the angular momentum of the CGM itself. Following on from this result, I then characterize the angular momentum distribution and structure within the CGM of simulated galaxies over a much larger range of halo masses and redshifts, with the goal of determining if there are common angular momentum properties in CGM populations. I indeed find that the angular momentum of the CGM is larger and better aligned around disk galaxies that themselves have high angular momentum. I also identify rotating structures of cold gas that are generally present around galactic disks. This clear connection of the CGM to the galaxy motivated a detailed comparison to observations of cold CGM gas. I perform this comparison in the following chapter where I use the highest-resolution simulation from the IllustrisTNG suite of cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to generate synthetic observations of cold CGM gas around star-forming galaxies in order to study kinematics and compare them to line-of-sight observations of cold gas near comparable galaxies. With this direct comparison to observations of the CGM, I show that IllustrisTNG produces rotating CGM gas consistent with observations to a high degree. In the penultimate chapter I present unpublished work where I begin to examine angular momentum evolution in the CGM on much finer timescales than can be resolved with the cosmological simulations I have used thus far. Preliminary results suggest that gas can experience large changes in angular momentum very quickly, and that these changes may be connected to corresponding changes in the temperature of the gas. Finally, I conclude by summarizing my main results and briefly discussing what questions still remain unanswered and my plans and strategies for pursuing these questions in my future work.

This Thesis contains details of the construction and characterisation of a compact apparatus for the cooling of ultracold atoms to quantum degeneracy, and their manipulation in flexible holographic optical traps. We have designed and built two iterations of this apparatus. The first version consists of a stainless steel single-cell vacuum chamber, in which we confine ⁸⁷Rb and ⁶Li or ⁷Li in a Magneto-Optical Trap. We characterise the alternative methods of pulsed atomic dispenser and Light Induced Atomic Desorption (LIAD) to rapidly vary the background pressure in the vacuum chamber with the view to enabling efficient evaporative cooling in the single chamber, loading MOTs of up to 10⁸ atoms using pulsed dispensers. The LIAD is found to be ineffective in loading large MOTs in this setup, while the pulsed dispensers method gradually increases the background pressure in the chamber over time. Based on the results of this first iteration, we designed and built a second single-chamber apparatus for cooling of ⁸⁷Rb to quantum degeneracy. The LIAD technique was used to successfully load MOTs containing 8x10⁷ atoms in this single pyrex cell with a rapidly-varying background pressure. The lifetime of an atomic cloud loaded from the MOT into a magnetic trap increased by a factor of 6 when LIAD was used. The holographic optical traps for cold atoms are generated using a Spatial Light Modulator, and we present our novel method for improving the quality of holographic light patterns to the point where they are suitable for trapping ultracold atoms using a feedback algorithm. As demonstrations of this new capability, we show power-law optical traps which provide an efficient, reversible route to Bose-Einstein Condensation and a dynamic ring trap for the investigation of superfluidity in cold atoms.