dual degree (ph.d.) program in physics (materials)

Motivation and Goals  |  Details of the Program  |  The Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences   |  Nanjing University
Louisiana State University  |  Discovering New Complex Materials and Phenomena  |  Physics & Chemistry at Surfaces: Broken Symmetry
Emergent Behavior in Spatially Confined Complex Materials   |  Condensed Matter Theory: From Quantum Criticality to Topological Matter
Quantum Critical Behavior  |  Correlated Cold Atoms: The Interface between Atomic and Condensed Matter Physics
Extreme Scale Simulations of Complex Materials  |  Materials Characterization with Synchrotron Radiations

correlated cold atoms: the interface between atomic and condensed matter physics

Beginning with the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in 1995, in recent years there has been an explosion of cold-atom experiments probing collective properties of matter. Recent experiments have produced superfluid, insulating and magnetic phases of cold atoms (akin to analogous phases in electronic condensed matter) as well as strongly correlated states sharing much in common with the quark-gluon plasma, a state produced at the relativistic heavy ion collider.

At LSU, we are presently pursing the theory of cold atomic gases, with the following questions:

• What states of matter are possible in cold atom experiments?
• How can they be observed experimentally?
• How will cold atoms shed light on related phenomena in condensed matter?

We work on numerous cold-atom problems, including:

• Photoemission spectra of cold fermion gases.
• Fermions in optical lattices and the response to an optical lattice modulation.
• Phases of imbalanced Fermi gases.

For more details, contact Prof. Daniel Sheehy ()

Last updated: November 23, 2010