Dr Rob Smith

Abstract:

We scrutinize the concept of saturation of the thermal component in a partially condensed trapped Bose gas. Using a 39K gas with tunable interactions, we demonstrate strong deviation from Einstein's textbook concept of a saturated vapor. However, the saturation picture can be recovered by extrapolation to the strictly noninteracting limit. We provide evidence for the universality of our observations through additional measurements with a different atomic species, 87Rb.

Abstract:

We perform high-precision measurements of the condensation temperature of a harmonically trapped atomic Bose gas with widely tunable interactions. For weak interactions we observe a negative shift of the critical temperature in excellent agreement with mean-field theory. However for sufficiently strong interactions we clearly observe an additional positive shift, characteristic of beyond-mean-field critical correlations. We also discuss nonequilibrium effects on the apparent critical temperature for both very weak and very strong interactions.

Abstract:

We present an overview of unconventional metallic states arising close to magnetic quantum critical points with a focus on d-electron systems. The applicability and potential breakdowns of traditional self-consistent field theories of such materials are discussed as well as related phenomena in other systems.