Granulation and Faraday Waves in Driven Quantum Systems

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Granular matter is typically the result of random pattern formation in a solid, like breaking a glass or pulverizing a rock into pieces of variable sizes. Faraday waves are patterns that appear on a fluid that is perturbed by an external drive that oscillates in resonance. Faraday waves aren't random; in contrast to granular matter, these waves are regular, standing, periodic patterns, seen for instance in liquids in a vessel that is shaken. Surprisingly, granulation and Faraday waves can exist in quantum systems too and, even more surprisingly, they can be produced in the same quantum system: in a gas of trapped atoms cooled very close to absolute zero temperature. When the strength of interactions between atoms is modulated, a Faraday pattern is produced if the modulation is fast and weak, and a granular state is formed if the modulation is slow and strong.

Read the complete user research report at the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing.

Principal Investigators

Axel U. J. Lode1 and Alexej I. Streltsov2

1 Technische Universität Wien, now: Institute of Physics, Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg
2 Institute of Physical Chemistry, Universität Heidelberg

Published