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Quantum simulators offer powerful means to investigate strongly correlated quantum matter. However, interpreting measurement outcomes in such systems poses significant challenges. Here, we present a theoretical framework for information extraction in synthetic quantum matter, illustrated for the case of a quantum quench in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate experiment. Employing non-parametric unsupervised learning tools that provide different measures of information content, we demonstrate a system-agnostic approach to identify dominant degrees of freedom. This enables us to rank operators according to their relevance, akin to effective field theory. To characterize the corresponding effective description, we then explore the intrinsic dimension of data sets as a measure of the complexity of the dynamics. This reveals a simplification of the data structure, which correlates with the emergence of time-dependent universal behavior in the studied system. Our assumption-free approach can be immediately applied in a variety of experimental platforms., Comment: Published version

We present the commissioning of the Fast Annihilation Cryogenic Tracker detector (FACT), installed around the antihydrogen production trap inside the 1 T superconducting magnet of the AE\=gIS experiment. FACT is designed to detect pions originating from the annihilation of antiprotons. Its 794 scintillating fibers operate at 4 K and are read out by silicon photomultipliers (MPPCs) at near room temperature. FACT provides the antiproton/antihydrogen annihilation position information with a few ns timing resolution. We present the hardware and software developments which led to the successful operation of the detector for antihydrogen detection and the results of an antiproton-loss based efficiency assessment. The main background to the antihydrogen signal is that of the positrons impinging onto the positronium conversion target and creating a large amount of gamma rays which produce a sizeable signal in the MPPCs shortly before the antihydrogen signal is expected. We detail the characterization of this background signal and its impact on the antihydrogen detection efficiency.

We characterized the pulsed Rydberg-positronium production inside the AEgIS (Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) apparatus in view of antihydrogen formation by means of a charge exchange reaction between cold antiprotons and slow Rydberg-positronium atoms. Velocity measurements on positronium along two axes in a cryogenic environment (10K) and in 1T magnetic field were performed. The velocimetry was done by MCP-imaging of photoionized positronium previously excited to the $n=3$ state. One direction of velocity was measured via Doppler-scan of this $n=3$-line, another direction perpendicular to the former by delaying the exciting laser pulses in a time-of-flight measurement. Self-ionization in the magnetic field due to motional Stark effect was also quantified by using the same MCP-imaging technique for Rydberg positronium with an effective principal quantum number $n_{eff}$ ranging between 14 and 22. We conclude with a discussion about the optimization of our experimental parameters for creating Rydberg-positronium in preparation for an efficient pulsed production of antihydrogen.

In this work we study the stability properties of the ground states of a spin-1 Bose gas in presence of a trapping potential in one spatial dimension. To set the stage we first map out the phase diagram for the trapped system by making use of a, so-called, continuous-time Nesterov method. We present an extension of the method, which has been previously applied to one-component systems, to our multi-component system. We show that it is a powerful and robust tool for finding the ground states of a physical system without the need of an accurate initial guess. We subsequently solve numerically the Bogoliubov de-Gennes equations in order to analyze the stability of the ground states of the trapped spin-1 system. We find that the trapping potential retains the overall structure of the stability diagram, while affecting the spectral details of each of the possible ground state waveforms. It is also found that the peak density of the trapped system is the characteristic quantity describing dynamical instabilities in the system. Therefore replacing the homogeneous density with the peak density of the trapped system leads to good agreement of the homogeneous Bogoliubov predictions with the numerically observed maximal growth rates of dynamically unstable modes. The stability conclusions in the one-dimensional trapped system are independent of the spin coupling strength and the normalized trap strength over several orders of magnitude of their variation., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Published version. References updated

We investigate experimentally the possibility of enhancing the production of $2^3S$ positronium atoms by driving the $1^3S$-$3^3P$ and $3^3P$-$2^3S$ transitions, overcoming the natural branching ratio limitation of spontaneous decay from $3^3P$ to $2^3S$. The decay of $3^3P$ positronium atoms towards the $2^3S$ level has been effciently stimulated by a 1312.2nm broadband IR laser pulse. The dependence of the stimulating transition efficiency on the intensity of the IR pulse has been measured to find the optimal enhancement conditions. A maximum relative increase of $ \times (3.1 \pm 1.0) $ in the $2^3S$ production efficiency, with respect to the case where only spontaneous decay is present, was obtained., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Positronium in the $2^3S$ metastable state exhibits a low electrical polarizability and a long lifetime (1140 ns) making it a promising candidate for interferometry experiments with a neutral matter-antimatter system. In the present work, $2^3S$ positronium is produced - in absence of electric field - via spontaneous radiative decay from the $3^3P$ level populated with a 205nm UV laser pulse. Thanks to the short temporal length of the pulse, 1.5 ns full-width at half maximum, different velocity populations of a positronium cloud emitted from a nanochannelled positron/positronium converter were selected by delaying the excitation pulse with respect to the production instant. $ 2^3S $ positronium atoms with velocity tuned between $ 7 \cdot 10^4 $ m/s and $ 10 \cdot 10^4 $ m/s were thus produced. Depending on the selected velocity, a $2^3S$ production effciency ranging from $\sim 0.8 \%$ to $\sim 1.7%$, with respect to the total amount of emitted positronium, was obtained. The observed results give a branching ratio for the $3^3P$-$2^3S$ spontaneous decay of $(9.7 \pm 2.7) \% $. The present velocity selection technique could allow to produce an almost monochromatic beam of $\sim 1 \cdot 10^3 $ $2^3S$ atoms with a velocity spread $ < 10^4 $ m/s and an angular divergence of $\sim$ 50 mrad., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

Ocean ventilation is the integrated effect of various processes that propagate surface properties to the ocean interior. Its precise understanding is the prerequisite for addressing essential questions such as oxygen supply, the storage of anthropogenic carbon and the heat budget of the ocean. Currently employed observational methods to infer ventilation utilise transient tracers, i.e. tritium, SF$_6$, CFCs and the radioisotope $^{14}$C. However, their dating ranges are not suitable to resolve the dynamics of the deep ocean. The noble gas isotope $^{39}$Ar with a half-life of 269 years fills this gap. Its broad application has previously been hindered by its very low abundance, requiring at least 1000 litres of water for dating. Here we report on successful $^{39}$Ar dating with only 5 litres of water based on the atom-optical technique Atom Trap Trace Analysis. Our data reveal previously not quantifiable ventilation patterns in the Eastern Tropical North Atlantic, where we find that advection is more important for the ventilation of the intermediate depth range than previously assumed. This result implies faster ventilation than estimated in other studies and thus a significantly higher anthropogenic CO$_2$-storage. The demonstrated analytical capabilities now allow for a global collection of $^{39}$Ar data, which will have significant impact on our understanding of ocean ventilation.

Producing positronium (Ps) in the metastable $2^3\text{S}$ state is of interest for various applications in fundamental physics. We report here about an experiment in which Ps atoms are produced in this long-lived state by spontaneous radiative decay of Ps excited to the $3^3\text{P}$ level manifold. The Ps cloud excitation is obtained with a UV laser pulse in an experimental vacuum chamber in presence of guiding magnetic field of 25 mT and an average electric field of 300 V/cm. The indication of the $2^3\text{S}$ state production is obtained from a novel analysis technique of single-shot positronium annihilation lifetime spectra. Its production efficiency relative to the total amount of formed Ps is evaluated by fitting a simple rate equations model to the experimental data and found to be $ (2.1 \pm 1.3) \, \% $.

Quantum simulators have the exciting prospect of giving access to real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories, in particular in regimes that are difficult to compute on classical computers. Future progress towards scalable quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories, however, hinges crucially on the efficient use of experimental resources. As we argue in this work, due to the fundamental non-uniqueness of discretizing the relativistic Dirac Hamiltonian, the lattice representation of gauge theories allows for an optimization that up to now has been left unexplored. We exemplify our discussion with lattice quantum electrodynamics in two-dimensional space-time, where we show that the formulation through Wilson fermions provides several advantages over the previously considered staggered fermions. Notably, it enables a strongly simplified optical lattice setup and it reduces the number of degrees of freedom required to simulate dynamical gauge fields. Exploiting the optimal representation, we propose an experiment based on a mixture of ultracold atoms trapped in a tilted optical lattice. Using numerical benchmark simulations, we demonstrate that a state-of-the-art quantum simulator may access the Schwinger mechanism and map out its non-perturbative onset., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures

Active interferometers use amplifying elements for beam splitting and recombination. We experimentally implement such a device by using spin exchange in a Bose-Einstein condensate. The two interferometry modes are initially empty spin states that get spontaneously populated in the process of parametric amplification. This nonlinear mechanism scatters atoms into both modes in a pairwise fashion and generates a nonclassical state. Finally, a matched second period of spin exchange is performed that nonlinearly amplifies the output signal and maps the phase onto readily detectable first moments. Depending on the accumulated phase this nonlinear readout can reverse the initial dynamics and deamplify the entangled state back to empty spin states. This sequence is described in the framework of SU(1,1) mode transformations and compared to the SU(2) angular momentum description of passive interferometers., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; invited article for Quantum Science and Technology

The characteristics of low energy antiproton annihilations on nuclei (e.g. hadronization and product multiplicities) are not well known, and Monte Carlo simulation packages that use different models provide different descriptions of the annihilation events. In this study, we measured the particle multiplicities resulting from antiproton annihilations on nuclei. The results were compared with predictions obtained using different models in the simulation tools GEANT4 and FLUKA. For this study, we exposed thin targets (Cu, Ag and Au) to a very low energy antiproton beam from CERN's Antiproton Decelerator, exploiting the secondary beamline available in the AEgIS experimental zone. The antiproton annihilation products were detected using emulsion films developed at the Laboratory of High Energy Physics in Bern, where they were analysed at the automatic microscope facility. The fragment multiplicity measured in this study is in good agreement with results obtained with FLUKA simulations for both minimally and heavily ionizing particles.

We discuss the experimental engineering of model systems for the description of QED in one spatial dimension via a mixture of bosonic $^{23}$Na and fermionic $^6$Li atoms. The local gauge symmetry is realized in an optical superlattice, using heteronuclear boson-fermion spin-changing interactions which preserve the total spin in every local collision. We consider a large number of bosons residing in the coherent state of a Bose-Einstein condensate on each link between the fermion lattice sites, such that the behavior of lattice QED in the continuum limit can be recovered. The discussion about the range of possible experimental parameters builds, in particular, upon experiences with related setups of fermions interacting with coherent samples of bosonic atoms. We determine the atomic system's parameters required for the description of fundamental QED processes, such as Schwinger pair production and string breaking. This is achieved by benchmark calculations of the atomic system and of QED itself using functional integral techniques. Our results demonstrate that the dynamics of one-dimensional QED may be realized with ultracold atoms using state-of-the-art experimental resources. The experimental setup proposed may provide a unique access to longstanding open questions for which classical computational methods are no longer applicable.

The quantum vacuum fundamentally alters the properties of embedded particles. In contrast to classical empty space, it allows for creation and annihilation of excitations. For trapped particles this leads to a change in the energy spectrum, known as Lamb shift. Here, we engineer a synthetic vacuum building on the unique properties of ultracold atomic gas mixtures. This system makes it possible to combine high-precision spectroscopy with the ability of switching between empty space and quantum vacuum. We observe the phononic Lamb shift, an intruiguing many-body effect orginally conjectured in the context of solid state physics. Our study therefore opens up new avenues for high-precision benchmarking of non-trivial theoretical predictions in the realm of the quantum vacuum.

Accessing the connection between classical chaos and quantum many-body systems has been a long-standing experimental challenge. Here, we investigate the onset of chaos in periodically driven two-component Bose-Einstein condensates, whose small quantum uncertainties allow for exploring the phase space with high resolution. By analyzing the uncertainties of time-evolved many-body states, we find signatures of elliptic and hyperbolic periodic orbits generated according to the Poincar\'e-Birkhoff theorem, and the formation of a chaotic region at increasing driving strengths. The employed fluctuation analysis allows for probing the phase-space structure by use of only short-time quantum dynamics., Comment: 5+2 pages, 4 figures

We experimentally demonstrate an alternative method for the dynamic generation of atomic spin squeezing, building on the interplay between linear coupling and nonlinear phase evolution. Since the resulting quantum dynamics can be seen as rotation and shear on the generalized Bloch sphere, we call this scheme twist-and-turn (TnT). This is closely connected to an underlying instability in the classical limit of this system. The short-time evolution of the quantum state is governed by a fast initial spreading of the quantum uncertainty in one direction, accompanied by squeezing in the orthogonal axis. We find an optimal value of $\xi_{\text{S}}^2=-7.1(3)$ dB in a single BEC and scalability of the squeezing to more than 10^4 particles with $\xi_{\text{S}}^2=-2.8(4)$ dB., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures

We consider a system of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice as a quantum simulator for electron-positron pair production in quantum electrodynamics (QED). For a setup in one spatial dimension, we investigate the nonequilibrium phenomenon of pair production including the backreaction leading to plasma oscillations. Unlike previous investigations on quantum link models, we focus on the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of QED and show that it may be well approximated by experiments employing Bose-Einstein condensates interacting with fermionic atoms. The calculations based on functional integral techniques give a unique access to the physical parameters required to realize the QED phenomena in a cold atom experiment. In particular, we use our approach to consider quantum link models in a yet unexplored parameter regime and give bounds for their ability to capture essential features of the physics. The results suggest a paradigmatic change towards realizations using coherent many-body states rather than single atoms for quantum simulations of high-energy particle physics phenomena., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, PLB version

The dynamical evolution of spatial patterns in a complex system can reveal the underlying structure and stability of stationary states. As a model system we employ a two-component rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate at the transition from miscible to immiscible with the additional control of linear interconversion. Excellent agreement is found between the detailed experimental time evolution and the corresponding numerical mean-field computations. Analyzing the dynamics of the system, we find clear indications of stationary states that we term nonlinear dressed states. A steady state bifurcation analysis reveals a smooth connection of these states with dark-bright soliton solutions of the integrable two-component Manakov model., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

A major challenge in quantum metrology is the generation of entangled states with macroscopic atom number. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that atomic squeezing generated via non-linear dynamics in Bose Einstein condensates, combined with suitable trap geometries, allows scaling to large ensemble sizes. We achieve a suppression of fluctuations by 5.3(5) dB for 12300 particles, which implies that similar squeezing can be achieved for more than 10$^7$ atoms. With this resource, we demonstrate quantum-enhanced magnetometry by swapping the squeezed state to magnetically sensitive hyperfine levels that have negligible nonlinearity. We find a quantum-enhanced single-shot sensitivity of 310(47) pT for static magnetic fields in a probe volume as small as 90 $\mu$m$^3$., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

Many cold atom experiments rely on precise atom number detection, especially in the context of quantum-enhanced metrology where effects at the single particle level are important. Here, we investigate the limits of atom number counting via resonant fluorescence detection for mesoscopic samples of trapped atoms. We characterize the precision of these fluorescence measurements beginning from the single-atom level up to more than one thousand. By investigating the primary noise sources, we obtain single-atom resolution for atom numbers as high as 1200. This capability is an essential prerequisite for future experiments with highly entangled states of mesoscopic atomic ensembles., Comment: Published version. 5 pages, 4 figures main text + 3 pages, 1 figure supplemental information

The main goal of the AEgIS experiment at CERN is to test the weak equivalence principle for antimatter. AEgIS will measure the free-fall of an antihydrogen beam traversing a moir\'e deflectometer. The goal is to determine the gravitational acceleration g for antihydrogen with an initial relative accuracy of 1% by using an emulsion detector combined with a silicon micro-strip detector to measure the time of flight. Nuclear emulsions can measure the annihilation vertex of antihydrogen atoms with a precision of about 1 - 2 microns r.m.s. We present here results for emulsion detectors operated in vacuum using low energy antiprotons from the CERN antiproton decelerator. We compare with Monte Carlo simulations, and discuss the impact on the AEgIS project., Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables

We prepare a superposition of two motional states by addressing lithium atoms immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium with a species-selective potential. The evolution of the superposition state is characterized by the populations of the constituent states as well as their coherence. The latter we extract employing a novel scheme analogous to the spin-echo technique. Comparing the results directly to measurements on freely-evolving fermions allows us to isolate the decoherence effects induced by the bath. In our system, the decoherence time is close to the maximal possible value since the decoherence is dominated by population relaxation processes. The measured data are in good agreement with a theoretical model based on Fermi's golden rule., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, links to citations fixed

We propose a method to infer the single-particle entropy of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice and to study the local evolution of entropy, spin squeezing, and entropic inequalities for entanglement detection in such systems. This method is based on experimentally feasible measurements of non-nearest-neighbour coherences. We study a specific example of dynamically controlling atom tunneling between selected sites and show that this could potentially also improve the metrologically relevant spin squeezing.

We analyze the formation of squeezed states in a condensate of ultracold bosonic atoms confined by a double-well potential. The emphasis is set on the dynamical formation of such states from initially coherent many-body quantum states. Two cases are described: the squeezing formation in the evolution of the system around the stable point, and in the short time evolution in the vicinity of an unstable point. The latter is shown to produce highly squeezed states on very short times. On the basis of a semiclassical approximation to the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, we are able to predict the amount of squeezing, its scaling with $N$ and the speed of coherent spin formation with simple analytical formulas which successfully describe the numerical Bose-Hubbard results. This new method of producing highly squeezed spin states in systems of ultracold atoms is compared to other standard methods in the literature., Comment: 12 pages, revised discussion + added references

We have observed 26 interspecies Feshbach resonances at fields up to 2050 G in ultracold $^6$Li+$^{23}$Na mixtures for different spin-state combinations. Applying the asymptotic bound-state model to assign the resonances, we have found that most resonances have d-wave character. This analysis serves as guidance for a coupled-channel calculation, which uses modified interaction potentials to describe the positions of the Feshbach resonances well within the experimental uncertainty and to calculate their widths. The scattering length derived from the improved interaction potentials is experimentally confirmed and deviates from previously reported values in sign and magnitude. We give prospects for $^7$Li+$^{23}$Na and predict broad Feshbach resonances suitable for tuning., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, version as published in PRA

Historically, the completeness of quantum theory has been questioned using the concept of bipartite continuous variable entanglement. The non-classical correlations (entanglement) between the two subsystems imply that the observables of one subsystem are determined by the measurement choice on the other, regardless of their distance. Nowadays, continuous variable entanglement is regarded as an essential resource allowing for quantum enhanced measurement resolution, the realization of quantum teleportation and quantum memories, or the demonstration of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. These applications rely on techniques to manipulate and detect coherences of quantum fields, the quadratures. While in optics coherent homodyne detection of quadratures is a standard technique, for massive particles a corresponding method was missing. Here we report on the realization of an atomic analog to homodyne detection for the measurement of matter-wave quadratures. The application of this technique to a quantum state produced by spin-changing collisions in a Bose-Einstein condensate reveals continuous variable entanglement, as well as the twin-atom character of the state. With that we present a new system in which continuous variable entanglement of massive particles is demonstrated. The direct detection of atomic quadratures has applications not only in experimental quantum atom optics but also for the measurement of fields in many-body systems of massive particles.

We experimentally investigate the mixing/demixing dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of a linear coupling between two internal states. The observed amplitude reduction of the Rabi oscillations can be understood as a result of demixing dynamics of dressed states as experimentally confirmed by reconstructing the spatial profile of dressed state amplitudes. The observations are in quantitative agreement with numerical integration of coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations without free parameters, which also reveals the criticality of the dynamics on the symmetry of the system. Our observations demonstrate new possibilities for changing effective atomic interactions and studying critical phenomena., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We have studied magnetic Feshbach resonances in an ultracold sample of Na prepared in the absolute hyperfine ground state. We report on the observation of three s-, eight d-, and three g-wave Feshbach resonances, including a more precise determination of two known s-wave resonances, and one s-wave resonance at a magnetic field exceeding 200mT. Using a coupled-channels calculation we have improved the sodium ground-state potentials by taking into account these new experimental data, and derived values for the scattering lengths. In addition, a description of the molecular states leading to the Feshbach resonances in terms of the asymptotic-bound-state model is presented., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

Criteria suitable for measuring entanglement between two different potential wells in a Bose- Einstein condensation (BEC) are evaluated. We show how to generate the required entanglement, utilizing either an adiabatic two-mode or dynamic four-mode interaction strategy, with techniques that take advantage of s-wave scattering interactions to provide the nonlinear coupling. The dynamic entanglement method results in an entanglement signature with spatially separated detectors, as in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate that ultracold interacting bosonic atoms in an optical lattice show sub-Poissonian on-site and inter-site atom number fluctuations. The experimental observations agree with numerical predictions of the truncated Wigner approximation. The correlations persist in the presence of multi-mode atom dynamics and even over large spatially extended samples involving several sites and large populations.

The dynamical evolution of squeezing correlations in an ultracold Bose-Einstein distributed across two modes is investigated theoretically in the framework of the Bose-Hubbard model. It is shown that the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian do not exploit the full region allowed by Heisenberg's uncertainty relation for number and phase fluctuations. The development of non-classical correlations and relative number squeezing is studied in the transition from the Josephson to the Fock regime. Comparing the full quantum evolution with classical statistical simulations allows to identify quantum aspects of the squeezing formation. In the quantum regime, the measurement of squeezing allows to distinguish even and odd total particle numbers., Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures

We consider the stability and dynamics of multiple dark solitons in cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Our study is motivated by the fact that multiple matter-wave dark solitons may naturally form in such settings as per our recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130401 (2008)]. First, we study the dark soliton interactions and show that the dynamics of well-separated solitons (i.e., ones that undergo a collision with relatively low velocities) can be analyzed by means of particle-like equations of motion. The latter take into regard the repulsion between solitons (via an effective repulsive potential) and the confinement and dimensionality of the system (via an effective parabolic trap for each soliton). Next, based on the fact that stationary, well-separated dark multi-soliton states emerge as a nonlinear continuation of the appropriate excited eigensates of the quantum harmonic oscillator, we use a Bogoliubov-de Gennes analysis to systematically study the stability of such structures. We find that for a sufficiently large number of atoms, multiple soliton states may be dynamically stable, while for a small number of atoms, we predict a dynamical instability emerging from resonance effects between the eigenfrequencies of the soliton modes and the intrinsic excitation frequencies of the condensate. Finally we present experimental realizations of multi-soliton states including a three-soliton state consisting of two solitons oscillating around a stationary one., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures

The description of an impurity atom in a Bose-Einstein condensate can be cast in the form of Frohlich's polaron Hamiltonian, where the Bogoliubov excitations play the role of the phonons. An expression for the corresponding polaronic coupling strength is derived, relating the coupling strength to the scattering lengths, the trap size and the number of Bose condensed atoms. This allows to identify several approaches to reach the strong-coupling limit for the quantum gas polarons, whereas this limit was hitherto experimentally inaccessible in solids. We apply Feynman's path-integral method to calculate for all coupling strengths the polaronic shift in the free energy and the increase in the effective mass. The effect of temperature on these quantities is included in the description. We find similarities to the acoustic polaron results and indications of a transition between free polarons and self-trapped polarons. The prospects, based on the current theory, of investigating the polaron physics with ultracold gases are discussed for lithium atoms in a sodium condensate., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

Entanglement, a key feature of quantum mechanics, is a resource that allows the improvement of precision measurements beyond the conventional bound reachable by classical means. This is known as the standard quantum limit, already defining the accuracy of the best available sensors for various quantities such as time or position. Many of these sensors are interferometers in which the standard quantum limit can be overcome by feeding their two input ports with quantum-entangled states, in particular spin squeezed states. For atomic interferometers, Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms are considered good candidates to provide such states involving a large number of particles. In this letter, we demonstrate their experimental realization by splitting a condensate in a few parts using a lattice potential. Site resolved detection of the atoms allows the measurement of the conjugated variables atom number difference and relative phase. The observed fluctuations imply entanglement between the particles, a resource that would allow a precision gain of 3.8 dB over the standard quantum limit for interferometric measurements.

The formation of the antihydrogen beam in the AEGIS experiment through the use of inhomogeneous electric fields is discussed and simulation results including the geometry of the apparatus and realistic hypothesis about the antihydrogen initial conditions are shown. The resulting velocity distribution matches the requirements of the gravity experiment. In particular it is shown that the inhomogeneous electric fields provide radial cooling of the beam during the acceleration., Comment: Invited talk at Pbar08 - Workshop on Cold Antimatter Plasmas and Application to Fundamental Physics, Okinawa, Japan, 2008

We report on the generation, subsequent oscillation and interaction of a pair of matter wave dark solitons. These are created by releasing a Bose-Einstein condensate from a double well potential into a harmonic trap in the crossover regime between one dimension (1D) and three dimensions (3D). The oscillation of the solitons is observed and the frequency is in quantitative agreement with simulations using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. An effective particle picture is developed and reveals that the deviation of the observed frequencies from the asymptotic prediction $\nu_{z}/\sqrt{2}$, where $\nu_{z}$ is the longitudinal trapping frequency, results from the dimensionality of the system and the interaction between the solitons., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We report on the first direct observation of coherent control of single particle tunneling in a strongly driven double well potential. In our setup atoms propagate in a periodic arrangement of double wells allowing the full control of the driving parameters such as frequency, amplitude and even the space-time symmetry. Our experimental findings are in quantitative agreement with the predictions of the corresponding Floquet theory and are also compared to the predictions of a simple two mode model. Our experiments reveal directly the critical dependence of coherent destruction of tunneling on the generalized parity symmetry., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We introduce a two dimensional model for the Bose-Einstein condensate with both attractive and repulsive nonlinearities. We assume a combination of a double well potential in one direction, and an optical lattice along the perpendicular coordinate. We look for dual core solitons in this model, focusing on their symmetry-breaking bifurcations. The analysis employs a variational approximation, which is verified by numerical results. The bifurcation which transforms antisymmetric gap solitons into asymmetric ones is of supercritical type in the case of repulsion; in the attraction model, increase of the optical latttice strength leads to a gradual transition from subcritical bifurcation (for symmetric solitons) to a supercritical one., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

We propose a novel protocol for the creation of macroscopic quantum superposition (MQS) states based on a measurement of a non-monotonous function of a quantum collective variable. The main advantage of this protocol is that it does not require switching on and off nonlinear interactions in the system. We predict this protocol to allow the creation of multiatom MQS by measuring the number of atoms coherently outcoupled from a two-component (spinor) Bose-Einstein condensate., Comment: 4 pages (revtex4), 2 figures

We consider the statics and dynamics of dark matter-wave solitons in the dimensionality crossover regime from 3D to 1D. There, using the nonpolynomial Schr\"{o}dinger mean-field model, we find that the anomalous mode of the Bogoliubov spectrum has an eigenfrequency which coincides with the soliton oscillation frequency obtained by the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii model. We show that substantial deviations (of order of 10% or more) from the characteristic frequency $\omega_{z}/\sqrt{2}$ ($\omega_{z}$ being the longitudinal trap frequency) are possible even in the purely 1D regime., Comment: Phys. Rev. A, in press

We discuss in detail the experimental investigation of thermally induced fluctuations of the relative phase between two weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. In analogy to superconducting Josephson junctions, the weak coupling originates from a tunneling process through a potential barrier which is obtained by trapping the condensates in an optical double-well potential. The observed fluctuations of the relative phase are in quantitative agreement with a many body two mode model at finite temperature. The agreement demonstrates the possibility of using the phase fluctuation measurements in a bosonic Josephson junction as a primary thermometer. This new method allows for measuring temperatures far below the critical temperature where standard methods based on time of flight measurements fail. We employ this new thermometer to probe the heat capacity of a degenerate Bose gas as a function of temperature., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures

We analyze the preparation (launching) of a 1D-propagating multipartite quantum soliton, its scattering and disintegration by an external potential. The regimes of suppressed disintegration and atom-number-dependent transmission are identified., Comment: revtex, 3 pages

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a method to prepare a nonspreading atomic wave packet. Our technique relies on a spatially modulated absorption constantly chiseling away from an initially broad de Broglie wave. The resulting contraction is balanced by dispersion due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This quantum evolution results in the formation of a nonspreading wave packet of Gaussian form with a spatially quadratic phase. Experimentally, we confirm these predictions by observing the evolution of the momentum distribution. Moreover, by employing interferometric techniques, we measure the predicted quadratic phase across the wave packet. Nonspreading wave packets of this kind also exist in two space dimensions and we can control their amplitude and phase using optical elements., Comment: 4 figures