Alan Jamison

Assistant Professor

Alan Jamison Dr. Jamison's group uses lasers to cool atoms to within a few billionths of a degree of absolute zero, making the coldest systems in the known universe. At these temperatures, atoms can be made to mimic interesting quantum systems from condensed matter, nuclear, and high-energy particle physics. We can also use light to drive chemical reactions that form molecules at similarly low temperatures. These ultracold molecules are a great resource for studying quantum chemistry and quantum information.

Contact information
Office: QNC 4114
Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 39060
Email: alanj@uwaterloo.ca

Expertise

Ultracold atoms and molecules
Quantum chemistry
Quantum information
Precision measurements and quantum-enhanced metrology

Research

The most compelling questions in quantum physics involve interacting systems of many particles. Quantum many-body physics embraces attempts to build quantum computers, understand exotic new materials, and fundamental questions such as measurement and thermalization in quantum mechanics. Ultracold atoms and molecules provide pristine systems in which to study quantum many-body physics, free from the defects and impurities of bulk materials and completely isolated from the outside world. We use the exquisite control available in ultracold systems to tackle some of the deepest questions of how our universe is put together and how it evolves with time.

Highlighted Publications

Collisional Cooling of Ultracold Molecules Hyungmok Son, Juliana J. Park, Wolfgang Ketterle, Alan O. Jamison
accepted to Nature
arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.09630

Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments Timur M. Rvachov, Hyungmok Son, Ariel T. Sommer, Sepehr Ebadi, Juliana J. Park, Martin W. Zwierlein, Wolfgang Ketterle, Alan O. Jamison
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 143001 (2017)
arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.03925 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.143001

A stripe phase with supersolid properties in spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates Jun-Ru Li, Jeongwon Lee, Wujie Huang, Sean Burchesky, Boris Shteynas, Furkan Çağrı Top, Alan O. Jamison, Wolfgang Ketterle
Nature, 543, 91-94 (2017)
arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.03514 DOI: 10.1038/nature21431

Advances in precision contrast interferometry with Yb Bose-Einstein condensates Alan O. Jamison, Benjamin Plotkin-Swing, Subhadeep Gupta
Phys. Rev. A, 90, 063606 (2014)
arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.6028 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.90.063606

Effects of gravitational confinement on bosonic asymmetric dark matter in stars Alan O. Jamison
Phys. Rev. D 88, 035004 (2013)
arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3773 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.88.035004