Chaotic scattering in ultracold atom-ion collisions

Meirav Pinkas, Jonathan Wengrowicz, Nitzan Akerman, Roee Ozeri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

We report on signatures of classical chaos in ultracold collisions between a trapped ion and a free atom. Using numerical simulations, we show that the scattering dynamics can be highly sensitive to initial conditions for various mass ratios and trapping frequencies, indicating the onset of chaos. We quantify this chaotic dynamics by calculating its fractal dimension. We show that for a trapped 88Sr+ ion and a free 87Rb atom chaotic dynamic appears under experimentally relevant conditions, and find its characteristic energy scale. The observation of classical chaos in atom-trapped-ion collisions suggests that signatures of quantum chaos might appear, for example, through a Wigner-Dyson distribution of collisional resonances.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages9
Journalarxiv.org
DOIs
StateIn preparation - 24 Jan 2024

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