Silke OSPELKAUS

In recent years, tremendous progress in the preparation and control of ultracold molecular gases in the quantum regime has been achieved and has opened exciting new research opportunities. Molecules rotate and oscillate and therefore offer many more quantum degrees of freedom than their atomic counterparts. Polar molecules interact via strong and long-range anisotropic interactions. These unique molecular properties lead to largely unexplored new possibilities and surprising results.  These range from peculiar scattering properties via the control of ultracold collisions and chemical reactions to strongly correlated dipolar quantum many-body systems.

In this talk I will take you on a journey through the world of cold and ultracold molecular systems and discuss future prospects.