Recent clock experiments have measured density-dependent frequency shifts in polarized fermionic alkaline-earth atoms using 1S0-3P0 Rabi spectroscopy. Here we provide a first-principles non-equilibrium theoretical description of the interaction frequency shifts starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian. Our formalism describes the dependence of the frequency shift on excitation inhomogeneity, interactions, and many-body dynamics, provides a fundamental understanding of the effects of the measurement process, and explains the observed density shift data. We also propose a method to measure the second of the two 1S0-3P0 scattering lengths, whose knowledge is essential for quantum information processing and quantum simulation applications.
We report on trapping of fermionic 40K atoms in a red-detuned standing-wave optical trap, loaded from a magneto-optical trap. Typically, 10^6 atoms are loaded at a density of 10^12 cm^-3 and a temperature of 65 microK, and trapped for more than 1 s. The optical trap appears to be the proper environment for performing collisional measurements on the cold atomic sample. In particular we measure the elastic collisional rate by detecting the rethermalization following an intentional parametric heating of the atomic sample. We also measure the inelastic two-body collisional rates for unpolarized at…
Fundamental aspects of ultracold collisions between identical bosonic or fermionic dipoles are studied under quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) confinement. In the strongly dipolar regime, bosonic and fermion species are found to share important collisional properties as a result of the confining geometry, which suppresses the inelastic rates irrespective of the quantum statistics obeyed. A potential negative is that the confinement causes dipole-dipole resonances to be extremely narrow, which could make it difficult to explore Q2D dipolar gases with tunable interactions. Such properties are shown to…
Elastic and inelastic properties of weakly bound s- and p-wave molecules of fermionic atoms that collide with a third atom are investigated. Analysis of calculated collisional properties of s-wave dimers of fermions in different spin states permit us to compare and highlight the physical mechanisms that determine the stability of s-wave and p-wave molecules. In contrast to s-wave molecules, the collisional properties of p-wave molecules are found to be largely insensitive to variations of the p-wave scattering length and that these collisions will usually result in short molecular lifetimes. W…
Optical lattice clocks have the potential for extremely high frequency stability owing to the simultaneous interrogation of many atoms, but this precision may come at the cost of systematic inaccuracy due to atomic interactions. Density-dependent frequency shifts can occur even in a clock that uses fermionic atoms if they are subject to inhomogeneous optical excitation [1, 2]. Here we present a seemingly paradoxical solution to this problem. By dramatically increasing the strength of atomic interactions, we suppress collisional shifts in lattice sites containing $N$ > 1 atoms; strong interacti…
We theoretically investigate the collisional heating of a cold atom system subjected to time-periodic forces. We show within the Floquet framework that this heating rate due to two-body collisions has a general semiclassical expression $\mathcal{P}\propto ρσv_{\rm col} E_0$, depending on the kinetic energy $E_0$ associated with the shaking, particle number density $ρ$, elastic collision cross section $σ$, and an effective collisional velocity $v_{\rm col}$ determined by the dominant energy scale in the system. We further show that the collisional heating is suppressed by Pauli blocking in cold…
We extent the recently developed Multi-Layer Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree method for Bosons (ML-MCTDHB) for simulating the correlated quantum dynamics of bosonic mixtures to the fermionic sector and establish a unifying approach for the investigation of the correlated quantum dynamics of mixture of indistinguishable particles, be it fermions or bosons. Relying on a multi-layer wave-function expansion, the resulting Multi-Layer Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree method for Mixtures (ML-MCTDHX) can be adapted to efficiently resolve system-specific intra- and inter-species c…
Full control of molecular interactions, including reactive losses, would open new frontiers in quantum science. Here, we demonstrate extreme tunability of chemical reaction rates by using an external electric field to shift excited collision channels of ultracold molecules into degeneracy with the initial collision channel. In this situation, resonant dipolar interactions mix the channels at long range, dramatically altering the intermolecular potential. We prepare fermionic potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules in their first excited rotational state and observe a three orders-of-magnitude modul…
The Fano effect (U. Fano, Phys. Rev. \textbf{15},1866 (1961) shows that an inelastic scattering process can be suppressed when the output channel (OC) is coupled to an isolated bound state. In this paper we investigate the application of this effect for the suppression of two-body collisional losses of ultracold atoms. The Fano effect is originally derived via a first-order perturbation treatment for coupling between the incident channel (IC) and the OC. We generalize the Fano effect to systems with arbitrarily strong IC--OC couplings. We analytically prove that, in a system with one IC and on…
Results. We consider the problem of isotropic collisions between an alkali atom and neutral hydrogen. We calculate the collisional tensorial components of general p and s-states, characterized by their effective principal quantum number $n^{*}$. It is found that the behaviour of the tensorial components obey simple power laws allowing quick calculations of the depolarizing collisional rates. As application, our results should allow a rigorous treatment of the atomic polarization profiles of the D1 -D2 lines of alkali atoms. Conclusions. Close coupling treatments of atomic collisions are needed…
In this work we investigate the issue of integrability in a classical model for noninteracting fermionic fields. This model is constructed via classical-quantum correspondence obtained from the semiclassical treatment of the quantum system. Our main finding is that the classical system, contrary to the quantum system, is not integrablein general. Regarding this contrast it is clear that in general classical models for fermionic quantum systems have to be handled with care. Further numerical investigation of the system showed that there may be islands of stability in the phase space. We also in…
At ultracold temperatures, the Pauli exclusion principle suppresses collisions between identical fermions. This has motivated the development of atomic clocks using fermionic isotopes. However, by probing an optical clock transition with thousands of lattice-confined, ultracold fermionic Sr atoms, we have observed density-dependent collisional frequency shifts. These collision effects have been measured systematically and are supported by a theoretical description attributing them to inhomogeneities in the probe excitation process that render the atoms distinguishable. This work has also yield…
Using the ab initio computed Potential Energy Surface (PES) for the electronic interaction of the MgH$^+$ ($^1Σ$) ion with the He($^1$S) atom, we calculate the relevant state-changing rotationally inelastic collision cross sections from a quantum treatment of the multichannel scattering problem. We focus on the quantum dynamics at the translationally low energies for the present partners discussed in the earlier, cold ion trap experiments (see below) which we wish to model in detail. The corresponding state-changing rates computed between the lower rotational states of the molecular ion are em…
Ultracold dysprosium gases, with a magnetic moment ten times that of alkali atoms and equal only to terbium as the most magnetic atom, are expected to exhibit a multitude of fascinating collisional dynamics and quantum dipolar phases, including quantum liquid crystal physics. We report the first laser cooling and trapping of half a billion Dy atoms using a repumper-free magneto-optical trap (MOT) and continuously loaded magnetic confinement, and we characterize the trap recycling dynamics for bosonic and fermionic isotopes. The first inelastic collision measurements in the few partial wave, 10…
The treatment of the inelastic collisions with electrons and hydrogen atoms are the main source of uncertainties in non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) spectral line computations. We report, in this research note, quantum mechanical data for 369 collisional transitions of \ion{Mg}{I} with electrons for temperatures comprised between 500 and 20000~K. We give the quantum mechanical data in terms of effective collision strengths, more practical for non-LTE studies.
