Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Prerequisites
Main Topics
- Quantum states and dynamics of photons.
- Photon-Atom interactions: basics and semiclassical approximations.
- Photon-Atom interactions: open system dynamics, optical Bloch equations.
- Applications and limits of the optical Bloch equations: dressed atoms, light force, decoherence.
- Cold atoms, quantum states, and quantum dynamics: quantum algorithms and protocols, ion traps, magnetic traps, evaporative cooling, Bose-Einstein condensation.
Requirements
There will be ten problem sets. Assignments will usually be due one week after they have been handed out. There will be no quiz or final exam, but a term paper at the end of the course. This will be a paper in the style of a publication in Physical Review Letters on a topic of mutual interest (see below). The term paper and the homework have equal weight for the total grade. The term paper will be due on the day of the last class.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Assignments | 50% |
| Term Paper | 50% |
Calendar
| LEC # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | |
| 2 | QED Hamiltonian | |
| 3 | Quantum description of light | |
| 4 | Non-classical light, squeezing | |
| 5 | Single photons | Homework 1 due |
| 6 | Entangled states | |
| 7 | Metrology, shot noise and Heisenberg limit | |
| 8 | g_2 for atoms and light | |
| 9 | Diagrams for light-atom interactions | Homework 2 due |
| 10 | Van der Waals and Casimir interactions | Homework 3 due |
| 11 | Casimir force | Homework 4 due |
| 12 | Resonant interactions | |
| 13 | Derivation of optical Bloch equations | |
| 14 | Solutions of optical Bloch equations | Homework 5 due |
| 15 | Unraveling Open System Quantum Dynamics | |
| 16 | Light forces part 1 and part 2 | Homework 6 due |
| 17 | Dressed atom part 1 and part 2 | |
| 18 | Techniques for ultralow temperatures (magnetic trapping, evap. cooling) | Homework 7 due |
| 19 | Bose gases, BEC, superfluid to Mott insulator transition | Homework 8 due |
| 20 | Fermi gases, BEC-BCS crossover | Homework 9 due |
| 21 | Ion trapping and quantum gates | Homework 10 due |
