DWBQS

Dynamics of Weakly Bound Quantum Systems

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'This proposal entitled “Dynamics of Weakly Bound Quantum Systems” (DWBQS) describes a joint collaborative academic project and exchange scheme between researchers from Norway, Sweden and France as beneficiaries and Argentina and India as participants. The first focus of the proposed program is on the theoretical challenges regarding transfer and breakup mechanisms in excited atomic and molecular systems. We will study breakup and imaging of Rydberg atoms and molecules in laser fields and Rydberg like systems in collisions between ions. The ability to solve the time dependent Schrödinger equation in this regime results in new insights regarding novel quantum processes involving entangled particles. For interpretation of present and future experiments the need for parallel theory development cannot be overestimated.

A second focus will be to develop new understanding for the atomic structure problem in Super Heavy Elements (SHE) based on experience of many body physics in systems like large clusters and quantum dots. The DWBQS group with its new collaborative constellation of theorists and experimentalists, atomic and nuclear physicists, has a background which is well suited to secure the achievement of the proposed goals.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU-funded scientists are developing the theory required to describe novel quantum processes. Results are already providing important insight into the behaviours of diatomic systems and quantum entanglement.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Rydberg atoms are atoms in a highly excited state in which one electron has been excited to a high principal quantum number orbital. This orbit typically has dimensions much larger than the leftover ion core, making Rydberg atoms very large, highly reactive and quite susceptible to fields and collisions. Rydberg molecules consisting of an atom in its electronic ground state and one in a highly excited state can be as large as a virus.

Exploration of Rydberg states and systems is the subject of a growing number of experiments in atomic, molecular and optical physics. EU-funded scientists are tackling theoretical challenges associated with these and similar systems within the context of the project 'Dynamics of weakly bound quantum systems' (DWBQS).

The first line of inquiry addresses transfer and breakup mechanisms in excited atomic and molecular systems using laser fields and inducing collisions between ions. Results should shed new light on quantum entanglement. The latter is a strange phenomenon in which two elementary particles become inextricably linked. A change in one causes a corresponding change in the other no matter how far apart they are. Understanding and controlling it is a pillar of planned quantum information processing.

Exploration of interacting diatomic Rydberg systems has produced a plethora of new results. Among them, scientists have elucidated the nature of a certain class of long-range diatomic states and provided insight into the dynamics of Rydberg wave packets. Auto-ionising (spontaneously emitting an electron) wave packets are produced by a perturbative laser pulse that excites the electronic wave function. The team has also studied the response of ground state molecules to fast, strong, time-dependent electromagnetic fields. Results enabled scientists to develop a new description of a process to achieve auto-ionising states in intermediate-energy collisions.

The theoretical developments and insights delivered by DWBQS will be invaluable in the planning and interpretation of future experiments. Investigations of cutting-edge phenomena such as quantum entanglement and super heavy elements will benefit, with more focused hypotheses providing more clear-cut and interpretable results.