Cooling through particle loss

Abstract

Quantum Gases Atomic gases can be cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero and—if they are also dense enough—can enter a regime where their quantum properties come to the fore. In reaching this so-called quantum degenerate regime, particle loss through three-body collisions is usually a foe rather than a friend. Dogra et al. predict theoretically that a weakly interacting 3D gas of bosonic atoms can be made more degenerate by exploiting, rather than fighting, three-body particle loss. For the scheme to work, the gas should reside in a homogeneous trap, and the cooling must start from a particular subset of initial conditions, both of which should be realizable in the lab. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123 , 020405 (2019).