Research

TRAFIC : quantum TRAnsport Fluctuations wIth Cold atoms

Research project selected under the 2014 call for proposals

Principal Investigator :

David Guéry-Odelin ()
LCAR (Cold atoms team)

Type of project : Collaborative Project

Partner team(s) :

LPT (Quantum Coherence)

Date (start/end) : 2015 - 2018

     

      

 

Stroboscopic phase space diagram of an amplitude modulated penduluum. In classical physics, a particl trapped in a stability island (about x=0) remains there for ever. In quantum physics, if the wave function is initially located in the upper island, it can tunnel towards the lower one. We plan to study systematically this effect and to show that it obeys a universal Cauchy law..

Abstract

In physics, many quantities are first characterized through a mean value. However in the presence of chaos/disorder, fluctuations contain a crucial part of the physics. We propose to study quantum transport fluctuations with cold atoms, a topic never studied directly so far. This aim will be achieved by considering the tunneling between two phase space cavities separated by a chaotic sea. Such a system exhibits strong fluctuations that result from the interplay between chaos and interference effects, reminiscent of the universal conductance fluctuations observed in mesoscopic systems. Chaos-assisted tunneling provides a microscope for quantum fluctuations that we will use in directions never addressed experimentally and theoretically. The experimental setup will allow us to explore key fluctuation properties of quantum transport in the presence of chaos/disorder, by shaping the chaotic sea so that its quantum states are either extended, Anderson localized, multifractal or topologically protected.

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