A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of a dilute gas is a unique quantum system with many atoms occupying the same quantum state of both internal (e.g., spin) and external (center of mass) coordinates.  We are interested in all aspects of BECs including their formation, their collective properties, their coherence properties, and their use as quantum simulators. Our group pioneered the study of a number of phenomena in BEC, such as Bragg diffraction, accelerators, and Bragg interferometers;  nonlinear atom optics (four-wave mixing of matter waves, and matter wave dark solitons); synthetic fields; atomtronic circuitry; etc.  Our current research topics include the investigation of the physics of BECs confined in periodic potentials (optical lattices) and the use of this system for investigating theoretical models in condensed matter, such as the Hubbard model; the study of the coherence and superfluid properties of the BEC, especially in ring-shaped traps--atomtronic circuits with Josephson junctions; the study of spin dynamics in  spinor condensates;  spin-orbit coupling in condensates; etc. We also study Fermi degenerate gases where Fermi-Dirac statistics forbid multiple occupation of any quantum state.  As part of the Joint Quantum Institute our group collaborates with experimentalists and theorists at NIST, the University of Maryland, and worldwide.  A few examples of recent work are:

“Synthetic gauge potentials for ultracold neutral atoms,” Y-J Lin and I. B. Spielman, J. Phys. B., 49, 183001 (2016).

“Degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures of rubidium and ytterbium,” V. D. Vaidya, J. Tiamsuphat, S. L. Rolston, and J. V. Porto, Phys. Rev. A 92, 043604 (2015).

“Interferometric Measurement of the Current-Phase Relationship of a Superfluid Weak Link,” S. Eckel, F. Jendrzejewski, A. Kumar, C. J. Lobb, and G. K. Campbell, Phys. Rev. X 4, 031052 (2014).