Dan Stamper-Kurn, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley
With
quantum gases, one can explore magnetic ordering and dynamics in
regimes inaccessible in solid-state systems. For example, in
degenerate spinor Bose gases, magnetization of the atomic spin is
established parasitically along with Bose-Einstein condensation,
allowing minute spin-dependent energies to dictate the magnetic
ordering of the gas. In addition, the extreme isolation of the
atomic system allows for systems to created far out of equilibrium,
allowing the dynamics of symmetry breaking to probed in real
time. A second cold-atom \"material,\" in which atoms are
confined within the periodic potential of an optical lattice, bears a
stronger resemblance to condensed-matter systems. I will present
recent progress to explore the effects of geometric frustration with
cold atoms that are confined in a two-dimensional kagome optical
lattice.