Quantum behaviour of a heavy impurity in a Bose gas
Time: 1pm AEST (3pm NZST)
Speaker: Dr Jesper Levinson
Affiliation: Monash University
Abstract
The scenario of an infinitely heavy impurity in a quantum medium is a fundamental problem in physics, with relevance ranging from electron gases to open quantum systems. Here I will consider the case of a heavy impurity interacting with a dilute Bose gas at zero temperature – the so-called Bose polaron. When the impurity-boson interactions are short ranged, I will show that boson-boson interactions induce a quantum blockade effect, where a single boson can effectively block or screen the impurity potential. This behaviour depends on the quantum granular nature of the Bose gas and thus cannot be captured within a standard classical-field description. Using a combination of exact quantum Monte Carlo methods and a truncated basis approach, I will expose how the polaron ground-state energy is linked to the spatial structure of the quantum correlations, spanning the infrared to ultraviolet physics.
About Australia - New Zealand Cold Atom Seminars
This new initiative hosts a seminar once a month for the Australia – New Zealand cold atom research community. The purpose is to encourage and facilitate ongoing discussions and collaboration in the local community. Talks should be less than 40 minutes in length to allow ample time for questions and discussion.
Seminars will be held on the last Friday of the month (except for December) at 1pm Melbourne time (which is normally 3pm New Zealand time). While the primary format is online via Zoom, various institutions will host the seminar in local seminar rooms. The Zoom link is https://uqz.zoom.us/j/88604569495
You can sign up for announcements for the seminars at this webpage:
https://lists.science.uq.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/anz_coldatoms
Seminars are recorded, and past seminars can be accessed from this web page.
Contact Matthew Davis mdavis@physics.uq.edu.au for further information.