Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Advances in atomic physics have led to the possibility of a coherent transformation between ultracold atoms and molecules including between completely bosonic condensates. Such transformations are enabled by the magneto-association of atoms at a Feshbach resonance which results in a passage through a quantum critical point. In this study, we show that the presence of generic interaction between the constituent atoms and molecules can fundamentally alter the nature of the critical point, change the yield of the reaction and the order of the consequent phase transition. We find that the correlations introduced by this interaction induce nontrivial many-body physics such as coherent oscillations between atoms and molecules, and a selective formation of squeezed molecular quantum states and quantum cat states. We provide analytical and numerical descriptions of these effects, along with scaling laws for the reaction yield in non-adiabatic regimes.
Source: Nature Communications
Institutions: Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,790
OpenAlex ID: W4404745943