Senior Thesis Presentation - Baughn

Time: 3 PM, Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

Place: P-250

Trapping atoms in waveguide potentials
Robert Baughn
In this computational research, a Gaussian wave containing ultracold atoms is propagated over a weak potential trap. This 1-D model is used to represent what a 2-D bend in a waveguide creates, a weak, attractive potential. The Crank-Nicolson method and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation are used to determine how the scattering of Gaussian in these ultracold temperatures behaves as it goes over the weak potential. The question is: can propagating atoms become trapped in a bound state due to the non-linear (atom-atom) interactions? The Gaussian propagation is started both in and out of the weak potential, while varying the number of atoms. While imaginary potential-based walls absorb the transmitted and reflected waves, the atoms are not seen in the trapped potential, and there is no evidence of a remaining weakly bound ground state.

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