Abstract
We study non-equilibrium spatial self-organization in cold atomic gases, where long-range spatial order spontaneously emerges from fluctuations in the plane transverse to the propagation axis of a single optical beam. The self-organization process can be interpreted as a synchronization transition in a fully connected network of fictitious oscillators, and described in terms of the Kuramoto model.
Highlights
In recent years, cold and ultracold matter have proved to be a formidable tool for the investigation of phase transitions and collective behaviour in nonequilibrium systems
This can be obtained in various configurations: transversally pumped cavities [1] where collective dynamics and self-organization in cold [2,3] and ultracold [4] gases have been investigated; collective atomic recoil lasing (CARL) where the spontaneous generation of a back-scattered beam within a monodirectional cavity is self-sustained by atomic bunching in the resulting optical potential [5,6,7]; in a counter-propagating geometry super-radiance and highorder nonlinearities stemming from atomic bunching have been studied [8,9,10]
We extend here the Kuramoto analogy to the situation analysed in [15,16], where no damping is present and a finite spread exists in the natural frequency spread of the fictitious oscillators
Summary
Cold and ultracold matter have proved to be a formidable tool for the investigation of phase transitions and collective behaviour in nonequilibrium systems. When coupling the dynamics of light and the centre-of-mass degrees of freedom of laser-cooled atoms, the dynamics becomes nonlinear and, above a critical value for the energy injected into the system, a transition is observed from a spatially homogeneous state to a state displaying some form of long-range order This can be obtained in various configurations: transversally pumped cavities [1] where collective dynamics and self-organization in cold [2,3] and ultracold [4] gases have been investigated; collective atomic recoil lasing (CARL) where the spontaneous generation of a back-scattered beam within a monodirectional cavity is self-sustained by atomic bunching in the resulting optical potential [5,6,7]; in a counter-propagating geometry super-radiance and highorder nonlinearities stemming from atomic bunching have been studied [8,9,10].
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Schedule a callMore From: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
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