Abstract:
Ultracold atoms and molecules continue to provide new opportunities for basic quantum science, for precision measurement, and for the study of paradigmatic Hamiltonians, called quantum simulations. I will illustrate two novel systems. Using ultracold NaLi atoms in the triplet ground state, we were able to control chemistry via magnetic fields and quantum interference. Using a new optical superresolution technique, we could localize dysprosium atoms with a separation much smaller than the diffraction limit of light, down to 50 nm, and observe strong purely magnetic interactions between atoms which are usually much weaker than electric interactions.
Speaker Biography:
Wolfgang Ketterle has been the John D. MacArthur professor of physics at MIT since 1998. He received a diploma (equivalent to a master’s degree) from the Technical University of Munich (1982), and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Munich (1986). He did postdoctoral work at the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and at the University of Heidelberg in molecular spectroscopy and combustion diagnostics.
In 1990, he came to MIT as a postdoc and joined the physics faculty in 1993. Since 2006, he has been the Director of the Center of Ultracold Atoms, an NSF-funded research center, and Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. His research group studies the properties of ultracold quantum matter.
For his observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas in 1995, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Other honors include the Gustav-Hertz Prize of the German Physical Society (1997), the Rabi Prize of the American Physical Society (1997), the Fritz London Prize in Low Temperature Physics (1999), the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics (2000), and a Humboldt research award (2009).
This is an in-person event open to Columbia University Affiliates. Pizza will be served starting at 12:00.
Current Columbia students and postdocs: There will be two opportunities to meet with Professor Ketterle. Please register your interest by April 24 here.
