April 23, 2005
Final project references
Hey Class,
Only a few of you have sent me a reference list for your final projects. Everyone should do this soon! I've posted what I've got on the final project section of the website.
Brian
Posted by Brian at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2005
Lecture notes up, etc.
Hey Class,
The lecture notes on laser cooling are available, and I've posted some reading material on resonance fluorescence if you're interested (see the class notes for 4/19).
Cheers,
Brian
Posted by Brian at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
Final project talks coming soon!
Hey Class,
Only one of you has signed up to give her final project talk. These talks will start next week (Thursday) and will take up the last 4 class periods!
Each of you needs to sign up for a date (4/21,4/26,4/28, or 5/3) to give your talk. Send me an email -- first come first served. If you do not send me an email (by 5 pm today) then I will randomly assign you to a date.
I will give more details about the talk in class today. We will finish up laser cooling, then do resonance fluorescence, and then you guys are basically teaching the rest of the class.
Also remember that the final project is due by 5/13. I will not and cannot be flexible on that date.
Brian
Posted by Brian at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
Note from Man-Hong on "Energy-time Uncertainty relation"
Hey Everyone,
Man-Hong sends this comment our way:
I accidentially found a comment by Seth Lloyd, in his nature article "Ultimate physical limits to computation". It is said that
"In particular, the correct interpretation of the time-energy Heisenberg uncertainty principle [DE Dt >= hbar] is not that it takes time Dt to measure energy to an accuracy DE (a fallacy that was put to rest by Aharonov and Bohm) but rather that that a quantum state with spread in energy DE takes time at least [Dt = pi hbar / 2 DE] to evolve to an orthogonal (and hence distinguishable) state."
Brian
Posted by Brian at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Error in lecture notes
Hey Class,
Shizhong found an error in my lecture notes on a quantum atom interacting with the quantum EM field. My definition of the saturation intensity was off by a factor of the wavelength. I'll update the online lecture notes right away!
Brian
Posted by Brian at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2005
Pre-flights ready for class on 4/12
Hey everyone,
The pre-flights (and some reading material) are ready for class on Tuesday.
Brian
Posted by Brian at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
Notifications should be working now!
Hi Class,
Now, I hope, you'll actually get a notification when I add an entry to the website.
Brian
Posted by Brian at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
Note from Man Hong on Casimir effect
Hello Dr. DeMarco,
I intended to post a comment somewhere in the course blog, but I could find no way to do it... Anyway, there is a recent claim by Jaffe (MIT) saying that Casimir effect can be derived without reference to zero point energies.
Hopefully, this article would be interesting to people in this class.
Ref:
The Casimir Effect and the Quantum Vacuum, hep-th/0503158
Regards,
Man Hong
Posted by Brian at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2005
Pre-flights ready for 3/29!
Hey Class,
The pre-flights for 3/29 are ready (and I scanned some more reading material).
Also: an important note: Class will be cancelled on Tuesday April 5.
See you Tuesday!
Cheers,
Brian
Posted by Brian at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2005
Note from Shizhong on the Casimir and Casimir-Polder effects
I checked the Casimir Effect. I should apologize for one misleading statement made in class. The first theoretical justification of the van der Waals force is made by F. London in 1930 using QM, who showed that there is a R^{-6} behaviour. In 1940, Overbeek did the experiment and he found that when distance between two particles is small, then we have R^{-6} dependence. However, if distance is large, then one has R^{-7} dependence. The R^{-7} dependence comes actually from the retarded potential. Casimir and Polder did the calculation taking into account the retarded potential and did find the R^{-7} potential.
The Casimir physics in this problem is that the R-dependence of the potential is _INDEPENDENT_ of the atom shell structure. Since it is tempting to argue that the van der Waals force comes from the fluctuation of electric dipoles in each of the atom, it is hard to understand why the shell structure of atom does not matter so much. It is at this time, when Casimir met Bohr(1947), Bohr suggested that this kind of universal R-dependence may have something to do with vacuum energy. Casimir did the calculation and did find the result R^{-7}. The more elabrate calculation can be found in the following paper Spruch L et al PRA _18_ 845(1978).
With best wishes,
Shizhong
Posted by Brian at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2005
Pre-flight back online
Hey everyone,
Ellen mentioned to me that the pre-flight claimed it was already closed. I fixed that problem, and updated one question. Let me know if you have any trouble!
Brian
Posted by Brian at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2005
Final project topics appearing
Hey Class,
A few of you have noticed already that final project topics are appearing on the website. I will continue to update that list as ideas come to me. Your best bet will be to check that list and just to browse the home pages of different AMO groups.
Brian
Posted by Brian at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
Updates to website
Hi Class,
The pre-flights for 2/22 are ready, the lecture notes from 2/17 are posted, and homework #1 solutions are up on the course site.
I need to think about possible topics for class projects more, so look for some info on that after the weekend.
Cheers,
Brian
Posted by Brian at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Preflight for 2/15 ready
Hey Class,
The pre-flights for Tuesday, February 15 are ready. Check the class notes on the website for reading material. The lecture notes and Powerpoint slides from class on 2/10 are also on the website now.
--Brian
Posted by Brian at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)