Bose-Einstein Condensates | Prof B. Prasanna Venkatesh | Lecture 01

Email: [email protected]

Course Objective: The course will cover basic aspects of the theoretical description of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of dilute atomic gases. Along the way, we will also learn about the seminal developments in atomic and molecular physics (such as laser cooling and trapping of atoms) that enabled the creation of a BEC in a trapped atomic system and some fascinating applications that have emerged from this development such as quantum simulation.

A tentative description of topics are:

Non-interacting Bose gas in a harmonic trap and the BEC transition
Laser cooling and trapping of Bose Gases
Mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii theory of condensed gases and dynamics
Quantum description of the BEC and long-range order
Applications of BECs - quantum simulation and information

References:

(1) Bose-Einstein Condensation in Dilute Gases, C.J. Pethick and H. Smith, 2008 (2nd edn), Cambridge University Press
(2) Bose-Einstein Condensation, Lev Pitaevskii and Sandro Stringari, 2003, Clarendon Press Oxford

Prerequisites:

Basic understanding of quantum mechanics, atomic physics and statistical mechanics.