Cold atoms

Under unimaginably cold conditions, matter presents new physical behavior: as the thermal motions of atoms and molecules become smaller and smaller, the elusive world quantum usually hidden at temperatures higher enters overbearing the scene. The ultimate frontiers of this field, that has literally gone through an explosion in the recent years, still remain to be seen, not mentioning all their numerous potential applications.

Our goal is to reach control of a series of aspects: (i) quantum correlation functions of atomic matter, which rule among other things the life-time of the condensate and their quantum dynamics; (ii) questions of fundamental physics, like the properties of gauge theories, 3-D Dirac fermions; (iii) simulation of strongly correlated systems; (iv) long-range dipolar forces.