Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has been observed in a dilute gas of sodium atoms. A Bose-Einstein condensate consists of a macroscopic population of the ground state of the system, and is a coherent state of matter. In an ideal gas, this phase transition is purely quantum-statistical. The study of BEC in weakly interacting systems which can be controlled and observed with precision holds the promise of revealing new macroscopic quantum phenomena that can be understood from first principles.

Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of sodium atoms

It is a fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics that a closed system with many degrees of freedom ergodically samples all equal energy points in phase space. To understand the limits of this assumption, it is important to find and study systems that are not ergodic, and thus do not reach thermal equilibrium. A few complex systems have been proposed that are expected not to thermalize because their dynamics are integrable. Some nearly integrable systems of many particles have been studied numerically, and shown not to ergodically sample phase space. However, there has been no experimental demonstration of such a system with many degrees of freedom that does not approach thermal equilibrium. Here we report the preparation of out-of-equilibrium arrays of trapped one-dimensional (1D) Bose gases, each containing from 40 to 250 87Rb atoms, which do not noticeably equilibrate even after thousands of collisions. Our results are probably explainable by the well-known fact that a homogeneous 1D Bose gas with point-like collisional interactions is integrable. Until now, however, the time evolution of out-of-equilibrium 1D Bose gases has been a theoretically unsettled issue, as practical factors such as harmonic trapping and imperfectly point-like interactions may compromise integrability. The absence of damping in 1D Bose gases may lead to potential applications in force sensing and atom interferometry.

http://absimage.aps.org/image/DAMOP06/MWS_DAMOP06-2006-000603.pdf

A quantum Newton's cradle

This article offers a comprehensive survey of results obtained for solitons and complex nonlinear wave patterns supported by nonlinear lattices (NLs), which represent a spatially periodic modulation of the local strength and sign of the nonlinearity, and their combinations with linear lattices. A majority of the results obtained, thus far, in this field and reviewed in this article are theoretical. Nevertheless, relevant experimental settings are also surveyed, with emphasis on perspectives for implementation of the theoretical predictions in the experiment. Physical systems discussed in the review belong to the realms of nonlinear optics (including artificial optical media, such as photonic crystals, and plasmonics) and Bose-Einstein condensation. The solitons are considered in one, two, and three dimensions. Basic properties of the solitons presented in the review are their existence, stability, and mobility. Although the field is still far from completion, general conclusions can be drawn. In particular, a novel fundamental property of one-dimensional solitons, which does not occur in the absence of NLs, is a finite threshold value of the soliton norm, necessary for their existence. In multidimensional settings, the stability of solitons supported by the spatial modulation of the nonlinearity is a truly challenging problem, for theoretical and experimental studies alike. In both the one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases, the mechanism that creates solitons in NLs in principle is different from its counterpart in linear lattices, as the solitons are created directly, rather than bifurcating from Bloch modes of linear lattices.

Solitons in nonlinear lattices

When a gas of bosonic particles is cooled below a critical temperature, it condenses into a Bose-Ei…

Bose-Einstein condensation

A topical review of numerical and experimental studies of supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber is presented over the full range of experimentally reported parameters, from the femtosecond to the continuous-wave regime. Results from numerical simulations are used to discuss the temporal and spectral characteristics of the supercontinuum, and to interpret the physics of the underlying spectral broadening processes. Particular attention is given to the case of supercontinuum generation seeded by femtosecond pulses in the anomalous group velocity dispersion regime of photonic crystal fiber, where the processes of soliton fission, stimulated Raman scattering, and dispersive wave generation are reviewed in detail. The corresponding intensity and phase stability properties of the supercontinuum spectra generated under different conditions are also discussed.

Supercontinuum generation, photonic crystal fiber

This work deals with soliton solutions of the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with cubic and quintic nonlinearities. We extend the procedure put forward in a recent paper [J. Belmonte-Beitia et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 164102 (2008)], and we solve the equation in the presence of a linear background and cubic and quintic interactions which are modulated in space and time. As a result, we show how a simple parameter can be used to generate brightlike or darklike localized nonlinear waves which oscillate in several distinct ways, driven by the space and time dependence of the parameters that control the trapping potential and the cubic and quintic nonlinearities.

Solitons with cubic and quintic nonlinearities modulated in space and time.

We consider a two-component pancake-shaped, i.e., effectively two-dimensional (2D), Bose-Einstein condensate coupled by the spin-orbit (SO) and Rabi terms. The SO coupling adopted here is of the mixed Rashba-Dresselhaus type. For this configuration, we derive a system of two 2D nonpolynomial Schr\"odinger equations (NPSEs), for both attractive and repulsive interatomic interactions. In the low- and high-density limits, the system amounts to previously known models, namely, the usual 2D Gross-Pitaevskii equation, or the Schr\"odinger equation with the nonlinearity of power $7/3$. We present simple approximate localized solutions, obtained by treating the SO and Rabi terms as perturbations. Localized solutions of the full NPSE system are obtained in a numerical form. Remarkably, in the case of the attractive nonlinearity acting in free space (i.e., without any 2D trapping potential), we find parameter regions where the SO and Rabi couplings make 2D fundamental solitons dynamically stable.

Localized modes in quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit and Rabi couplings

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. A 70, 025803 (2004)] we presented a scheme to teleport an entanglement of zero- and one-photon states from a bimodal cavity to another one, with 100% success probability. Here, inspired by recent results in the literature, we have modified our previous proposal to teleport the same entangled state without using Bell-state measurements. For comparison, the time spent, the fidelity, and the success probability for this teleportation are considered.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0604156.pdf

Teleportation of entangled states without Bell-state measurement

Modulation of breathers in cigar-shaped Bose–Einstein condensates

noz-Mateo–Delgado (MM-D) equation (the 1D reduction of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with the SDF nonlinearity), with the local strength of the nonlinearity growing at |x |→∞ faster than |x|. We produce numerical solutions and analytical ones, obtained by means of the Thomas-Fermi approximation, for nodeless ground states and for excited modes with one, two, three and four nodes, in two versions of the model, with steep (exponential) and mild (algebraic) nonlinear-modulation profiles. In both cases, the ground states and the single-node ones are completely stable, while the stability of the higher-order modes depends on their norm (in the case of the algebraic modulation, they are fully unstable). Unstable states spontaneously evolve into their stable lower-order counterparts.

Wesley B. Cardoso

Papers

Solitons with cubic and quintic nonlinearities modulated in space and time.

Localized modes in quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates with spin-orbit and Rabi couplings

Teleportation of entangled states without Bell-state measurement

Modulation of breathers in cigar-shaped Bose–Einstein condensates

Bright solitons from the nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation with inhomogeneous defocusing nonlinearities.