Thesis advisor: Kenneth Burch / In quantum materials, quantum mechanical effects survive over a wide range of temperatures and length scales, which leads to fascinating phenomena, such as charge density waves, spin liquids, and magnetism. These remarkable properties originate from a delicate balance among many interacting degrees of freedom. Even small perturbations such as temperature and doping can induce many diverse phases and colossal changes in the material's functionalities. It remains a mystery how to detect these novel phenomena without complicated fabrication and extreme conditions. This thesis contributed to this field by studying collective modes in quantum materials via inelastic light scattering. After fabricating the devices in a glovebox, we directly transfer them to the measurement platform under a high vacuum. Using Raman spectroscopy, a new quasi-particles--axial Higgs mode in charge density wave systems was discovered and further symmetry breaking accompanied with it suggests the charge density wave is unconventional. In addition to symmetry analysis breakthroughs, this thesis also provided direct evidence of the fractional nature as well as the energy and temperature limits of Kitaev interactions in quantum spin liquid candidate systems, which is the building block for topological quantum computers. Not limited to 2D Kitaev materials, the non-Fluery-Loudon single magnon scattering process was detected in a 3D Kitaev system. Other than using Raman to probe the fundamental nature, we also employed it to reveal, for the first time, a clean way to realize modulation doping in 2D materials, where the acceptor carrier density has reached 10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$. This method can be applied to dope magnetic materials or twisted heterostructures to find new phases. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

The sculpting of ultracold neutral plasmas represents a frontier in the experimental study of collective modes in strongly coupled plasmas. By extending the range of accessible length scales to less than tens of microns we gain access to a regime where The sculpting of ultracold neutral plasmas represents a frontier in the experimental study of collective modes in strongly coupled plasmas. By extending the range of accessible length scales to less than tens of microns we gain access to a regime where strong coupling's effects are predicted yet largely untested. To this effort, high resolution optical systems were designed, bench tested and implemented for sculpting and imaging ultracold neutral plasmas. Many complications and unexpected effects were documented to assist future experimental design considerations, including, those due to saturation and optical thickness, both of which limit the utility of 461 nm push beam modulations. It was concluded that sculpting should be performed on the 412 nm ionizing beam and real-time density space analysis is reliable for spatial frequencies up to 5 cyc/mm by using 4X magnified imaging. Higher spatial frequencies benefit from velocity space analysis due to extremely fast dynamics and low intensity levels.

As the hydrodynamic theory breaks down with the local density ap- proximation in the fermionic superfluid with spin-polarization, we develop a general formalism of the adiabatic dynamics for the low-lying collective modes in the BEC-BCS crossover, which is exact in the adiabatic limit. This adi- abatic dynamic theory is based on a static density functional theory of the spin-polarized superfluid system, which we derive as a generalization of the conventional density functional theory of superfluid for current experimental interests. A special case where the system is uniform and analytically solv- able is studied in detail. We show that our adiabatic equations of motion are reduced to the hydrodynamic equations of motion within local density approx- imation, which provides a solid microscopic foundation for the well-publicized phenomenological hydrodynamic theory. / text

Neste trabalho, estudamos as consequências causadas em um condensado de Bose-Einstein de átomos de 87Rb quando sujeito a uma excitação oscilatória externa. Para a produção do condensado utilizamos técnicas de resfriamento atômico, como o resfriamento a laser e o resfriamento evaporativo, em átomos aprisionados em uma armadilha magnética harmônica. A excitação externa é produzida através de um campo magnético quadrupolar oscilatório que é sobreposto ao campo de aprisionamento. Para uma forma fixa dessa excitação, observamos que podemos excitar modos coletivos de oscilação na amostra de condensado, em especial analisamos os modos breathing, dipolar, quadrupolar e o scissor mode. Durante o movimento dipolar do condensado na armadilha magnética, identificamos que há um escoamento contrapropagante do condensado em relação à nuvem térmica que o permeia. Esse escoamento é analisado como um movimento de dois fluidos, onde o condensado desempenha o papel de um superfluido e a nuvem térmica o de um fluido normal. Irregularidades na superfície do condensado são observadas e seus comprimentos característicos crescem na região dos pontos de retorno do movimento dipolar do condensado. Nesses pontos, a forma das irregularidades sugerem estar relacionadas com o processo de geração de vórtices na amostra superfluida. Com base nestas análises, determinamos o valor da velocidade relativa dos fluidos e qual deve ser, tipicamente, o valor da velocidade relativa crítica para que as irregularidades se tornam maiores, possibilitando a geração de vórtices. As análises apresentadas neste trabalho são dedicadas a entender os mecanismos que possibilitaram, em nosso sistema, a observação de vórtices, turbulência quântica e a granulação do condensado, em 2009. / In this work we have studied the effects caused by an external oscillatory excitation in a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb. The condensate is produced through by atomic laser cooling techniques, as laser cooling and evaporative cooling, for trapped atoms in a harmonic magnetic trap. The external excitation is generated by an oscillating magnetic quadrupole field superimposed to the trapping field. For a fixed type of excitation, we observe that collective modes of oscillation are excited in the condensate sample, particularly we analyze the dipole mode, quadrupole and scissor mode. During the motion of the condensate in dipolar mode inside the magnetic trap, we have identified a counterflow, i. e. a relative motion between the condensate and the thermal cloud. This flow is analyzed as a two fluids motion, where the condensate plays the role of a superfluid and the thermal cloud a normal fluid. Irregularities on the condensate surface are observed and their characteristic lengths grow in the turning point regions of this dipolar motion. At these points, the shape of this irregularities seems to be related to the vortices generation process in a superfluid sample. Based on this analysis, we determine the velocity of the counterflow and the critical velocity for the irregularities to become larger, allowing the generation of vortices. The analyses presented in this work are dedicated to understand the mechanisms that allowed in our system the observation of vortices, quantum turbulence and the condensate granulation, in 2009.

abstract: Chiral symmetry and its anomalous and spontaneous breaking play an important role in particle physics, where it explains the origin of pion and hadron mass hierarchy among other things. Despite its microscopic origin chirality may also lead to observable effects in macroscopic physical systems -- relativistic plasmas made of chiral (spin-$\frac{1}{2}$) particles. Such plasmas are called \textit{chiral}. The effects include non-dissipative currents in external fields that could be present even in quasi-equilibrium, such as the chiral magnetic (CME) and separation (CSE) effects, as well as a number of inherently chiral collective modes called the chiral magnetic (CMW) and vortical (CVW) waves. Applications of chiral plasmas are truly interdisciplinary, ranging from hot plasma filling the early Universe, to dense matter in neutron stars, to electronic band structures in Dirac and Weyl semimetals, to quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions. The main focus of this dissertation is a search for traces of chiral physics in the spectrum of collective modes in chiral plasmas. I start from relativistic chiral kinetic theory and derive first- and second-order chiral hydrodynamics. Then I establish key features of an equilibrium state that describes many physical chiral systems and use it to find the full spectrum of collective modes in high-temperature and high-density cases. Finally, I consider in detail the fate of the two inherently chiral waves, namely the CMW and the CVW, and determine their detection prospects. The main results of this dissertation are the formulation of a fully covariant dissipative chiral hydrodynamics and the calculation of the spectrum of collective modes in chiral plasmas. It is found that the dissipative effects and dynamical electromagnetism play an important role in most cases. In particular, it is found that both the CMW and the CVW are heavily damped by the usual Ohmic dissipation in charged plasmas and the diffusion effects in neutral plasmas. These findings prompt a search for new physical observables in heavy-ion collisions, as well as a revision of potential applications of chiral theories in cosmology and solid-state physics. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Physics 2019

Neste trabalho, estudamos as consequências causadas em um condensado de Bose-Einstein de átomos de 87Rb quando sujeito a uma excitação oscilatória externa. Para a produção do condensado utilizamos técnicas de resfriamento atômico, como o resfriamento a laser e o resfriamento evaporativo, em átomos aprisionados em uma armadilha magnética harmônica. A excitação externa é produzida através de um campo magnético quadrupolar oscilatório que é sobreposto ao campo de aprisionamento. Para uma forma fixa dessa excitação, observamos que podemos excitar modos coletivos de oscilação na amostra de condensado, em especial analisamos os modos breathing, dipolar, quadrupolar e o scissor mode. Durante o movimento dipolar do condensado na armadilha magnética, identificamos que há um escoamento contrapropagante do condensado em relação à nuvem térmica que o permeia. Esse escoamento é analisado como um movimento de dois fluidos, onde o condensado desempenha o papel de um superfluido e a nuvem térmica o de um fluido normal. Irregularidades na superfície do condensado são observadas e seus comprimentos característicos crescem na região dos pontos de retorno do movimento dipolar do condensado. Nesses pontos, a forma das irregularidades sugerem estar relacionadas com o processo de geração de vórtices na amostra superfluida. Com base nestas análises, determinamos o valor da velocidade relativa dos fluidos e qual deve ser, tipicamente, o valor da velocidade relativa crítica para que as irregularidades se tornam maiores, possibilitando a geração de vórtices. As análises apresentadas neste trabalho são dedicadas a entender os mecanismos que possibilitaram, em nosso sistema, a observação de vórtices, turbulência quântica e a granulação do condensado, em 2009. / In this work we have studied the effects caused by an external oscillatory excitation in a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb. The condensate is produced through by atomic laser cooling techniques, as laser cooling and evaporative cooling, for trapped atoms in a harmonic magnetic trap. The external excitation is generated by an oscillating magnetic quadrupole field superimposed to the trapping field. For a fixed type of excitation, we observe that collective modes of oscillation are excited in the condensate sample, particularly we analyze the dipole mode, quadrupole and scissor mode. During the motion of the condensate in dipolar mode inside the magnetic trap, we have identified a counterflow, i. e. a relative motion between the condensate and the thermal cloud. This flow is analyzed as a two fluids motion, where the condensate plays the role of a superfluid and the thermal cloud a normal fluid. Irregularities on the condensate surface are observed and their characteristic lengths grow in the turning point regions of this dipolar motion. At these points, the shape of this irregularities seems to be related to the vortices generation process in a superfluid sample. Based on this analysis, we determine the velocity of the counterflow and the critical velocity for the irregularities to become larger, allowing the generation of vortices. The analyses presented in this work are dedicated to understand the mechanisms that allowed in our system the observation of vortices, quantum turbulence and the condensate granulation, in 2009.

Les étoiles à neutrons ont été largement étudiées depuis que Baade and Zwicky ont postulé leur existence en 1934. Ces études ont été et sont réalisées à l'interface de différents domaines de la physique tels que : l'astrophysique en rayons X, l'observation des pulsars, la relativité générale et plus dernièrement les ondes gravitationnelles, la physique du solide, ainsi que la physique nucléaire. Dans cette thèse nous nous concentrerons sur la description des étoiles à neutrons dans le cadre de la physique nucléaire et précisément de la croûte interne de l'étoile. Ces étoiles sont caractérisées par une masse importante de l'ordre d'une à deux masses solaires dans un rayon de 10 km. Quant à leur structure interne elle peut être décrite en trois strates : la croûte externe, la croûte interne et le cœur. La croûte externe correspond à un réseau cristallin de noyaux atomiques et un gaz d'électrons relativistes. Vient ensuite la croûte interne, définie lorsque les noyaux de la croûte externe sont si riches en neutrons qu'ils les libèrent dans le milieu pour former un gaz. Ici, nous ne parlons plus de noyaux mais d'agrégats car tous les nucléons qui les composent ne sont plus systématiquement liés. Cette structure complexe et sa composition est à l'origine de nombreuses propriétés caractéristiques des étoiles à neutrons.C'est ainsi que nous construirons notre étude en trois parties. Tout d'abord nous commencerons par traiter le gaz de neutrons entourant les agrégats. Le gaz de neutrons que nous considérons uniforme ici est superfluide et devrait donc présenter un mode de Goldstone. Cette description sera effectuée à l'aide de la QRPA. Puis nous en viendrons à la description des agrégats. Dans ces conditions on s'attend à observer des cristaux de sphères, des cylindres et des plaques de matière nucléaire, que nous décrirons grâce à l'approximation ETF. Puis nous terminerons par la description de l'interaction entre les agrégats et le gaz au niveau dynamique, et ce dans le cadre de la théorie hydrodynamique. Ces résultats seront appliqués à l'astrophysique et en particuliers aux glitches. / Neutron stars have been extensively studied since Baade and Zwicky have proposed their existence in 1934. Their description is at the interface of numerous domains of physics, e.g., X-ray astrophysics, pulsar signal observation, general relativity and nowadays gravitational waves, solid state physics, and also nuclear physics. In this thesis we will concentrate on the nuclear physics description, especially of the inner crust. These stars are charaterized by their large mass from one to two solar masses, in a radius of 10 km. Their inner structure can be divded in three major layers: the outer crust, the inner crust and the core. The outer crust consists of nuclei coexisting with an electron gas to ensure charge neutrality. If one goes deeper into the crust, the ratio of neutrons with respect to the total nucleon number increases. Eventually, the excess of neutrons in the nuclei gets so high that they drip out from the nuclei and create a dilute neutron gas. From now on, we will speak of nuclear clusters instead of nuclei. This phenomenon defines the limit between the outer crust and the inner crust. This complicated structure and composition is at the origin of many characteristic properties of neutron stars. Hence, we will construct our work in three major parts. First, we start to account for the neutron gas surrounding the clusters, which we treat as uniform. Here, the neutron gas is assumed to be superfluid, and one can expect a Goldstone mode. This description will be done in the framework of QRPA. Second, we will focus on the study of properties of the clusters contained in the inner crust. Under these conditions we expect to see cystal of spheres, rods and plates of bound nucleons, that we will describe with the help of the ETF approximation. Third, we will finish by treating the interaction between the clusters and the gas with hydrodynamics. The results will be applied to astrophysics and in particular to glitches.

Thesis advisor: Gabor J. Kalman / Mixtures of charged particles, where the components have different charge numbers (Z_A ), masses (m_A ) and densities (n_A ), with A = 1, 2 denoting the components, occur in Nature in a great variety. To be sure, even the simplest plasmas are necessarily multicomponent systems, consisting of negative and positive charges. This feature is, however, obscured within the centrally important and popular OCP (one component plasma) or jellium models, where the role of one of the components is reduced to providing a neutralizing background. When this background is inert, one is led to the Coulomb OCP model, while when the background is polarizable (such as an electron gas surrounding heavy particles), to a Yukawa OCP (YOCP), with a screened Yukawa potential replacing the Coulomb potential between the dynamically active particles. There are, however situations of physical importance, where the OCP description is inadequate and a genuine two component description of a plasma composed of two species is required. This Thesis focuses on the study of the dynamics of many-body systems consisting of two components of like charges (all the Z_A -s being of the same signature) in a neutralizing background. The methodology is based upon parallel attacks through theoretical analysis and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, the latter yielding the capability of instant verification of the former. The investigation involves the study of the partial (i.e. species by species) structure functions S_AB (k, ω) and current-current correlation functions L_AB (k, ω). The Fluctuation–Dissipation Theorem (FDT) con- nects these quantities to the total and partial response functions χ_AB (k, ω) (matrices in species space), which are instrumental in the description of the collective mode excitations of the system. This analysis has revealed an entirely novel feature: both S_11 (k, ω) and S_22 (k, ω) exhibit very sharp and deep (several orders of magnitude) minima in the strongly coupled liquid phase at robust characteristic frequencies of the system, which are virtually coupling independent. The FDT then demands that these anti-resonances show up as well in the imaginary part of the partial density response function χ_AB (k, ω). Our theoretical analysis, based on the Quasi-Localized Charge Approximation (QLCA), has confirmed that this is indeed the case. These anti-resonant frequencies being related to the dissipative part of the response, require a physical description of the principal source of dissipation. This has been identified as the inter-species momentum transfer, governed by drag between the microscopic current fluctuations of the two species. The description of this effect was incorporatedv in the QLCA formalism, making it possible to derive a closed analytic representation of the fluctuation spectra in the frequency domain of interest and compare them with the results of the MD simulations. Other important novel concepts, such as the idea of coupling dependent effective mass, fast vs. slow sound, the mechanism of tran- sition from short-range to long-range interaction have been identified and analyzed. Furthermore, the investigation of the dynamics has led to the first comprehensive description of the mode structures of classical binary Coulomb and Yukawa mixtures at arbitrary coupling values, which has been a longstanding problem in statistical plasma physics. Focusing on the longitudinal excitations, we describe the transition from weak coupling (where one is acquainted with the RPA result yielding only the single plasmon mode in the Coulomb case or a single acoustic mode in the Yukawa case) to strong coupling, with a doublet of modes that arise from the complex rel- ative motion between the two components, as affected by the interaction with the background. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

In this thesis, we present the generation and studies of a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) perturbed by an oscillatory excitation. The atoms are trapped in a harmonic magnetic trap where, after an evaporative cooling process, we produce the BEC. In order to study the effect caused by oscillatory excitations, a quadrupole magnetic field time oscillatory is superimposed to the trapping potential. Through this perturbation, collective modes were observed. The dipole mode is excited even for low excitation amplitudes. However, a minimum excitation energy is needed to excite the condensate quadrupole mode. Observing the excited cloud in TOF expansion, we note that for excitation amplitude in which the quadrupole mode is excited, the cloud expands without invert its aspect ratio. By looking these clouds, after long time-of-flight, it was possible to see vortices and, sometimes, a turbulent state in the condensed cloud. We calculated the momentum distribution of the perturbed BECs and a power law behavior, like the law to Kolmogorov turbulence, was observed. Furthermore, we show that using the method that we have developed to calculate the momentum distribution, the distribution curve (including the power law exponent) exhibits a dependence on the quadrupole mode oscillation of the cloud. The randomness distribution of peaks and depletions in density distribution image of an expanded turbulent BEC, remind us to the intensity profile of a speckle light beam. The analogy between matter-wave speckle and light speckle is justified by showing the similarities in the spatial propagation (or time expansion) of the waves. In addition, the second order correlation function is evaluated and the same dependence with distance was observed for the both waves. This creates the possibility to understand the properties of quantum matter in a disordered state. The propagation of a three-dimensional speckle field (as the matter-wave speckle described here) creates an opportunity to investigate the speckle phenomenon existing in dimensions higher than 2D (the case of light speckle). / Nesta tese, descrevemos a produção e os estudos de condensados de Bose-Einstein, em átomos de 87Rb, perturbados através de excitações oscilatórias. Os átomos aprisionados são aprisionados em uma armadilha magnética harmônica onde produzimos o condensado de Bose-Einstein após o processo de resfriamento evaporativo. Com o objetivo de estudar o efeito de excitações oscilatórias, um campo magnético quadrupolar temporalmente oscilanteé superposto ao campo de aprisionamento. Através dessa perturbação, podemos observar a excitação de modos coletivos no condensado. Mesmo para baixas amplitudes de excitação, o modo dipolar é facilmente excitado. Porém, observamos que para excitar o modo quadrupolar no condensado é necessária uma energia mínima. Através da expansão em tempo de voo da nuvem excitada, identificamos que, para amplitude de excitação na quail o modo quadrupolar é excitado, a nuvem expande sem inverter o aspect ratio. Analisando essas nuvens por longos tempos de voo, foi possível observar alguns vórtices e, às vezes, um estado turbulento na nuvem condensada. Calculamos a distribuição de momento dessas nuvens e notamos que ela exibe um comportamento de lei de potência, parecido com a lei de Kolmogorov para turbulência. Além disso, mostramos que pelo nosso método que desenvolvemos para calcular a distribuição de momento, a forma da curva dessa distribuição (inclusive o expoente da lei de potência) exibe uma dependência com o modo quadrupolar de oscilação da nuvem. A distribuição desordenada de picos e depleções, na imagem da distribuição de densidade do condensado turbulento expandido, assemelha-se ao perfil de intensidade de um feixe de luz com speckle. A analogia entre speckle de onda de matéria e de luz é fundamentada através das semelhanças entre a propagação (ou expansão) dessas duas ondas. Além disso, a função de correlação de segunda ordem foi calculada e a mesma dependência com a distância foi observada para as duas ondas. Isto cria a possibilidade de entender melhor as propriedades da matéria quântica em um estado de desordem. A propagação de um campo de speckle tridimensional (como é o caso do speckle de onda de matéria aqui descrito) cria uma oportunidade de investigar o fenômeno de speckle em dimensões maiores que 2D (o caso do speckle de luz).

In this thesis, we present the generation and studies of a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) perturbed by an oscillatory excitation. The atoms are trapped in a harmonic magnetic trap where, after an evaporative cooling process, we produce the BEC. In order to study the effect caused by oscillatory excitations, a quadrupole magnetic field time oscillatory is superimposed to the trapping potential. Through this perturbation, collective modes were observed. The dipole mode is excited even for low excitation amplitudes. However, a minimum excitation energy is needed to excite the condensate quadrupole mode. Observing the excited cloud in TOF expansion, we note that for excitation amplitude in which the quadrupole mode is excited, the cloud expands without invert its aspect ratio. By looking these clouds, after long time-of-flight, it was possible to see vortices and, sometimes, a turbulent state in the condensed cloud. We calculated the momentum distribution of the perturbed BECs and a power law behavior, like the law to Kolmogorov turbulence, was observed. Furthermore, we show that using the method that we have developed to calculate the momentum distribution, the distribution curve (including the power law exponent) exhibits a dependence on the quadrupole mode oscillation of the cloud. The randomness distribution of peaks and depletions in density distribution image of an expanded turbulent BEC, remind us to the intensity profile of a speckle light beam. The analogy between matter-wave speckle and light speckle is justified by showing the similarities in the spatial propagation (or time expansion) of the waves. In addition, the second order correlation function is evaluated and the same dependence with distance was observed for the both waves. This creates the possibility to understand the properties of quantum matter in a disordered state. The propagation of a three-dimensional speckle field (as the matter-wave speckle described here) creates an opportunity to investigate the speckle phenomenon existing in dimensions higher than 2D (the case of light speckle). / Nesta tese, descrevemos a produção e os estudos de condensados de Bose-Einstein, em átomos de 87Rb, perturbados através de excitações oscilatórias. Os átomos aprisionados são aprisionados em uma armadilha magnética harmônica onde produzimos o condensado de Bose-Einstein após o processo de resfriamento evaporativo. Com o objetivo de estudar o efeito de excitações oscilatórias, um campo magnético quadrupolar temporalmente oscilanteé superposto ao campo de aprisionamento. Através dessa perturbação, podemos observar a excitação de modos coletivos no condensado. Mesmo para baixas amplitudes de excitação, o modo dipolar é facilmente excitado. Porém, observamos que para excitar o modo quadrupolar no condensado é necessária uma energia mínima. Através da expansão em tempo de voo da nuvem excitada, identificamos que, para amplitude de excitação na quail o modo quadrupolar é excitado, a nuvem expande sem inverter o aspect ratio. Analisando essas nuvens por longos tempos de voo, foi possível observar alguns vórtices e, às vezes, um estado turbulento na nuvem condensada. Calculamos a distribuição de momento dessas nuvens e notamos que ela exibe um comportamento de lei de potência, parecido com a lei de Kolmogorov para turbulência. Além disso, mostramos que pelo nosso método que desenvolvemos para calcular a distribuição de momento, a forma da curva dessa distribuição (inclusive o expoente da lei de potência) exibe uma dependência com o modo quadrupolar de oscilação da nuvem. A distribuição desordenada de picos e depleções, na imagem da distribuição de densidade do condensado turbulento expandido, assemelha-se ao perfil de intensidade de um feixe de luz com speckle. A analogia entre speckle de onda de matéria e de luz é fundamentada através das semelhanças entre a propagação (ou expansão) dessas duas ondas. Além disso, a função de correlação de segunda ordem foi calculada e a mesma dependência com a distância foi observada para as duas ondas. Isto cria a possibilidade de entender melhor as propriedades da matéria quântica em um estado de desordem. A propagação de um campo de speckle tridimensional (como é o caso do speckle de onda de matéria aqui descrito) cria uma oportunidade de investigar o fenômeno de speckle em dimensões maiores que 2D (o caso do speckle de luz).