Explorations of Spin-Nematic Dynamics in a Spin-1 BEC: Squeezing, Non-Gaussian Distributions, and Stabilization

Current study in quantum dynamical evolution of complex systems investigates quantum systems characterized by fluctuations and quantum correlations.  Spin-1 condensates are predicted to generate non-classical states with quantum correlations, specifically squeezed states in the early low depletion limit and highly non-Gaussian distributions in the long term beyond the low depletion limit.  These states are created due to the quantum fluctuations about an unstable equilibrium in the spin-nematic subspaces to which the system is initialized.  In this talk I will discuss the underlying theory along with our measurements of spin-nematic squeezing [1], the later non-Gaussian distributions [2], and our efforts to stabilize the initial unstable equilibrium by periodically perturbing the dynamics.

1.  C.D. Hamley, C.S. Gerving, T.M. Hoang, E.M. Bookjans, and M.S. Chapman, “Spin-Nematic Squeezed Vacuum in a Quantum Gas,” Nature Physics 8, 305-308 (2012).
 2.  C.S. Gerving, T.M. Hoang, B.J. Land, M. Anquez, C.D. Hamley, and M.S. Chapman, “Non-equilibrium dynamics of an unstable quantum pendulum explored in a spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate,” Nature Communications 3, 1169 (2012)