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Artificial Gauge Fields in Ultracold Atomic Ensembles
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- Author / Creator
- Cooke, Logan
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Gauge theory provides a simple and robust way in which to describe the underlying symmetries of nature, and the ability to empirically test such theories is of vital importance. Quantum simulators have found an important application in recent decades, in the generation of artificial gauge fields. These systems allow researchers to create various fields which would otherwise only exist in the most exotic systems. In this thesis, we will discuss techniques with which to realize various artificial gauge fields in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which are coherently manipulated by external radiation. We derive the affect of radio-frequency (RF) and laser fields on atomic spins in a BEC, and then later describe how they may be used to generate both Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields. We discuss techniques for many-body numerical simulation of BECs in the presence of artificial magnetic fields, created through laser dressing, and extend the algorithm to run more efficiently on a graphics processing unit (GPU). Next, we present a technique for using Floquet engineered RF fields to produce degeneracies in an otherwise nondegenerate spin system; consequently, geometric phases arise which are well described by the presence of a non-Abelian gauge field. We also discuss the relevance of this technique to holonomic quantum computing (HQC). Altogether, we present several theoretical, numerical, and experimental procedures with which researchers may explore both Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories in ultracold atomic systems.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2024
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.