Dimitra Koutroumpa, Service d'Aeronomie du CNRS, France
"Charge-Exchange Induced EUV/Soft X-ray emissions from the Heliosphere and Mars"

Jake Taylor, MIT
"Artificial atoms and molecules in quantum information science"

Guifre Vidal, University of Brisbane
"Classical simulation of quantum many-body systems using a tensor network"

Abstract
Recent progress in our understanding of entanglement in strongly correlated quantum systems has led to a series of breakthrough algorithms to simulate quantum lattice models. Based on mimicking the structure of quantum correlations by using a tensor network, namely so called MPS, PEPS (Verstraete and Cirac, cond-mat/0407066) and MERA (Vidal, cond-mat/0512165), the new algorithms can be used to find e.g. ground states or thermal states of lattice models in one and two dimensions, and to simulate time evolution. I will present a review of recent progress in the field. Such algorithms can be regarded both as a complement and a threat to the ongoing effort to use engineered quantum systems (such as cold atoms in optical lattices) to simulate other quantum systems.

12:00
Wed. 3/14/07

Murray Batchelor, Australian National University
"Pairing and quantum phase transitions in the integrable 1D atomic Fermi gas"

I will talk about pairing and quantum phase transitions in the exactly solved one-dimensional two-component Fermi atomic gas with an external field. The phase diagram, critical fields, magnetization and local pairing correlation can be obtained analytically via the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz solution. At zero temperature, bound pairs of fermions with opposite spin states form a singlet ground state when the external field $H < H_{c1}$. A completely ferromagnetic phase without pairing occurs when the external field $H > H_{c2}$. In the region $H_{c1} < H < H_{c2}$ there is a mixed phase of matter in which paired and unpaired atoms coexist. The phase diagram is reminiscent of that of type II superconductors. For temperatures below the degenerate temperature and in the absence of external field, the bound pairs of fermions form hard-core bosons obeying generalized exclusion statistics.

Rudi Grimm, Universität Innsbruck
"Strongly interacting Fermi gases: recent results from Innsbruck"

Gora Shlyapnikov, CNRS, Paris
"Anderson localization of expanding Bose-Einstein condensates"

Spring Recess

Tommaso Calarco, Harvard University
Quantum Optimal Control: a tool for scalable Quantum Information Processing

Lily Childress, Harvard University
Coherent manipulation of single electronic and nuclear spins in diamond

Paolo Tombesi, University of Camerino
A scheme for scalable quantum computers with electrons in Penning traps

Tom Killian, Rice University
Collisional and collisionless expansion of ultracold neutral plasmas

Ignacio Cirac, Max-Planck, Garchig
Quantum simulations with classical and quantum systems

Fall Term 2007

Alan Mills, UC Riverside:
"Positronium molecules and the annihilation gamma ray laser"

Marianna Safronova, University of Delaware

"Polarizabilities, atomic clocks, and magic wavelengths"

Abstract: I will describe the high-precision calculations of the static and frequency-dependent polarizabilities in alkali-metal atoms and Ca+. The resulting polarizability values are used for a variety of applications from reducing the decoherence in quantum logic gates to the evaluation of the black-body radiation (BBR) shifts for optical frequency standards. Our alkali-metal atom polarizability calculations can be used to predict the oscillation frequencies of optically-trapped atoms, and particularly the ratios of frequencies of different species held in the same trap. We identify wavelengths at which two different alkali atoms have the same oscillation frequency. We also evaluate ``magic'' wavelengths in alkali-metal atoms for which np and ns levels have the same ac-Stark shift enabling state-insensitive optical cooling and trapping. The calculation of the BBR shift for the optical frequency standard with Ca+ ion is also described.

Austen Lamacraft, University of Virginia
"Long wavelength spin dynamics of ferromagnetic condensates"

Abstract
The novel dynamics associated with the spin degrees of freedom is one of the most exciting and still relatively unexplored aspects of the physics of ultracold atomic gases. In this talk I will give the effective description of spin dynamics valid in the incompressible limit in a ferromagnetic Bose condensate. I will discuss the conservation laws of the resulting equations of motion and will use the theory to analyze the stability of magnetic spirals and Larmor precession in the presence of dipolar forces

Pierre Meystre, University of Arizona
"Cooling of nanoscale mirrors "

The observation of quantum dynamics in truly macroscopic objects appears increasingly feasible as a result of recent experimental advances that include novel cooling techniques and progress in nanofabrication. This is an exciting prospect, as it would enable us to explore the quantum-classical boundary as well as to test quantum mechanics in an entirely new regime. The implementation of characteristically quantum mechanical phenomena at a macroscopic scale also promises technological benefits for areas from quantum measurement to the interferometric detection of gravitational waves and to atomic force microscopy.

A promising route to these objectives is through the use of optomechanical systems, particularly optical cavities where the support of one of the mirrors is a nanoscale cantilever. The talk will review recent developments in the optical cooling of these moving mirrors and discuss the prospects for reaching their quantum mechanical ground state of vibration. Future directions, including the realization of quantum entanglement in these systems, will also be touched upon.

Doerte Blume, Washington State University
"Microscopic Study of Fermi Gases at Unitarity"

David Weiss , Penn State University
"Experiments with gases in 0D, 1D and more"