Markus Oberthaler

The experimental platform of atoms manipulated by light offers answers to a broad spectrum of open questions. With two explicit and very different examples I will give you a glimpse how broad this spectrum is. I will start with a fundamental question in oceanography: At what time has the deep water in the ocean been in exchange with the atmosphere? Quantum atom optics offers the experimental possibility to detect the very rare Argon 39 atoms one by one and with that allows the dating of water samples as small as ten liters [1]. A very different question in physics is about the existence of universal behavior. Specifically in respect to time dynamics this has only recently been discussed theoretically in the context of the early phase of after a heavy ion collision. Universal meaning, that the evolution does not depend on the initial condition and follows the scaling hypothesis in time and space. I will introduce the concept and present the first observation of this phenomenon in highly controlled ultracold Bose gases [2].

[1] Ar-39 dating with small samples provides new key constraints on ocean ventilation, Nature Comm. 9, 5046 (2018).[2] Observation of universal dynamics in a spinor Bose gas far from equilibrium, Nature 563, 217 (2018)