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 Physics-Astronomy Building & The Astronomy Department |
January 4 Recent Department News A Celebration of Prof. Sam Fain Available Positions in the Department First predicted almost 40 years ago, Efimov States recently have been created in atomic systems. In 1970, UW Physics Department Lecturer Vitaly Efimov (then at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia) predicted a very strange phenomenon, which is now widely known as Efimov effect. If two bosons interact in such a way that a two-body bound state is exactly on the verge of being formed, then in a three-boson system one should observe an infinite number of bound states. All these states are very similar to one another, differing essentially in scale only. If one would be able to change the interaction strength, by making it either weaker or stronger, the number of three-body bound states would become finite. What is even more strange is the fact that this phenomenon can be observed only in a three dimensional system and only in a three-body system. For many years, researchers have sought two-body systems with such finely tuned properties that by adding the third body one would be able to observe the remarkable and very delicate quantum phenomenon of Efimov states. Only recently has Nature been kind enough to provide such a system; atomic physicists have learned how to manipulate the interaction strength between atoms. Several atomic experimental groups now have been able to demonstrate that Efimov states really exist and have the properties predicted long ago by Professor Efimov. A scientific meeting in Rome, Italy, has been organized and dedicated to the physics of this remarkable quantum phenomenon: "Efimov States in Molecules and Nuclei: Theoretical Methods and New Experiments," see http://w3.uniroma1.it/efimov2009 . Professor Efimov will be the guest of honor at this meeting. Congratulations, Professor Efimov! Former colleagues and friends of Professor Emeritus Sam Fain, with support from the Department of Physics and the Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington have organized a colloquium and two seminars to be given by former graduate students of Sam on Monday, November 16 and Tuesday, November 17, preceded by a reception also on Monday, November 16. More details and a complete schedule can be found here
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