Ford Motor Company Distinguished Lecture in Physics

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Carl E. Wieman Physics Nobel laureate Carl E. Wieman gave the 2003 Ford Motor Company Distinguished Lecture in Physics. Wednesday, April 9, 2003 Lecture was in 1324 East Hall Auditorium at 4:00 pm Reception preceded at 3:30 pm in the atrium directly outside of the auditorium.

Bose-Einstein Condensation: Quantum Weirdness at the Lowest Temperature in the Universe

In 1995, Professor Carl Wieman’s group created a new form of matter called a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). Einstein predicted that a gas would undergo a dramatic transformation at a sufficiently low temperature in 1924. His group was able to observe BEC by cooling a gas sample to the unprecedented temperature of less than 100 billionths of a degree above absolute zero. Professor Wieman shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for his accomplishments. The BEC state is a novel form of matter in which a large number of atoms lose their individual identities and behave as a single quantum entity, the “superatom.” This entity is the atom analogue to laser light, and, although large enough to be easily seen and manipulated, exhibits the nonintuitive quantum behavior normally important only at minute size scales. The study and use of the curious properties of BEC has now become an important subfield of physics. He will discuss how to create BEC and some of the subsequent research. He will also demonstrate how interactive applets are used as a tool for teaching science.

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Carl Wieman also gave the Special Physics/Applied Physics colloquium
Resonant BEC: a New Macroscopic Quantum System
Thursday, April 10, 2003 at 2 pm in 340 West Hall

A Bose-Einstein condensate of Rubidium 85 is a macroscopic quantum system where the self interactions can be rapidly adjusted over a very large range. This is done simply by changing a magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. Condensates near such a resonance show a variety of interesting features, a few of which are actually understood. These include BEC supernova-like explosions (“Bosenovas”) and exotic coherent superpositions of atomic and molecular BECs.

The Special Physics/Applied Physics colloquium was part of the Applied Physics Symposium. For more information, please see the Applied Physics website.

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