Cold-atom systems and the scaling limit

With perspective to applications of cold-atom systems, some aspects of few-body physics at very low energies will be reviewed. By exploring the possibilities of varying the two-body interaction via the Feshbach resonance mechanism, some recent results are reported for condensed systems in optical lattices.

Combining general relativity, massive QED and Very Long Baseline Interferometry to gravitationally constrain the photon mass

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

PHOTON MASS and VERY LONG BASELINE INTERFEROMETRY

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

HBT interferometry: historical perspective

I review the history of HBT interferometry, since its discovery in the mid 1950's, up to the recent developments and results from BNL/RHIC experiments. I focus the discussion on the contributions to the subject given by members of our Brazilian group.

Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry for sonoluminescence bubble

Two-photon correlation of the light pulse emitted from a sonoluminescence bubble is discussed. It is shown that several important features of the mechanism of light emission, such as the time scale and the shape of the emission region, could be obtained from Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry. We also argue that such a measurement may serve to reject one of the two currently suggested emission mechanisms, i.e., the thermal process versus the dynamical Casimir effect.

Bound states of the barium atom by the hyperspherical approach

We present a nonadiabatic hyperspherical calculation of the highly excited and low lying doubly excited states of the barium atom using effective potentials for the two optically active electrons' interactions. Within the hyperspherical adiabatic approach the investigation of the spectra is performed with potential curves and nonadiabatic couplings of a unique radial variable, which allows clear identification of the states. The convergence of energy is obtained within well established bound limits, and the precision is comparable to accurate configuration interaction calculations. A very good agreement with experimental results is obtained with only few nonadiabatic couplings. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Multipolar polarizabilities of the sodium atom by a variationally stable procedure

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Multiwavelength electronic speckle pattern interferometry for surface shape measurement

Profilometry by electronic speckle pattern interferometry with multimode diode lasers is both theoretically and experimentally studied. The multiwavelength character of the laser emission provides speckled images covered with interference fringes corresponding to the surface relief in single-exposure processes. For fringe pattern evaluation, variations of the phase-stepping technique are investigated for phase mapping as a function of the number of laser modes. Expressions for two, three, and four modes in four and eight stepping are presented, and the performances of those techniques are compared in the experiments through the surface shaping of a flat bar. The surface analysis of a peach points out the possibility of applying the technique in the quality control of food production and agricultural research. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.

THE EFFECT OF POSITRONIUM FORMATION IN POSITRON ALKALI-ATOM SCATTERING

We study e+-Na, e+-K, and e+-Rb scattering using the close coupling approach in the static and coupled static expansion schemes. We calculate partial wave elastic scattering phase shifts and total elastic and Ps formation cross sections up to an incident positron energy of 100 eV. The effect of the positronium formation channel on the elastic channel is found to be strong in all cases up to an incident positron energy of 10 eV. We also make an estimate of the total cross section which exhibits a minimum as a function of energy at low energies.

Nonadiabatic calculations of the oscillator strengths for the helium atom in the hyperspherical adiabatic approach

Energies and wavefunctions are calculated for the bound states of the helium atom in the hyperspherical adiabatic approach by the full inclusion of nonadiabatic couplings. We show that the use of appropriate asymptotic radial boundary conditions not only allows the efficient calculation of energies accurate up to a few ppm for the ground state but also gives increasingly precise results for high-lying excited states with a unique set of equations. The accuracy of the wavefunctions is demonstrated by the calculation of oscillator strengths in the length form for transitions between stares ii S-1(e) and (n + 1) P-1(0) up to n = 29, in agreement with variational calculations.

Light-induced lens analysis in photorefractive crystals employing phase-shifting real-time holographic interferometry

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Denisiuk-type reflection holography display with sillenite crystals for imaging and interferometry of small objects

A novel setup for imaging and interferometry through reflection holography with Bi12TiPO20(BTO) sillenite photorefractive crystals is proposed. A variation of the lensless Denisiuk arrangement was developed resulting in a compact, robust and simple interferometer. A red He-Ne laser was used as light source and the holographic recording occurred by diffusion with the grating vector parallel to the crystal [0 0 1]-axis. In order to enhance the holographic image quality and reduce noise a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) was positioned at the BTO input and the crystal was tilted around the [0 0 1]-axis. This enabled the orthogonally polarized transmission and diffracted beams to be separated by the PBS, providing the holographic image only. The possibility of performing deformation and strain analysis as well as vibration measurement of small objects was demonstrated. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Refractive and geometric lens characterization through multi-wavelength digital speckle pattern interferometry

Physical parameters of different types of lenses were measured through digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) using a multimode diode laser as light source. When such lasers emit two or more longitudinal modes simultaneously the speckle image of an object appears covered of contour fringes. By performing the quantitative fringe evaluation the radii of curvature as well as the refractive indexes of the lenses were determined. The fringe quantitative evaluation was carried out through the four- and the eight-stepping techniques and the branch-cut method was employed for phase unwrapping. With all these parameters the focal length was calculated. This whole-field multi-wavelength method does enable the characterization of spherical and aspherical lenses and of positive and negative ones as well. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quenching of para-H-2 with an ultracold antihydrogen atom (H)over-bar(1s)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)