Ultra-cold Conference in Goa

ICTP recently sponsored a Conference on Research Frontiers in Ultra-Cold Atomic and Molecular Gases in Goa, India, that attracted about 100 scientists.

Over the past decade investigations of ultra-cold quantum gases have revealed a wealth of intriguing phenomena. Ultra-cold gases provide highly controllable systems, which aid in the investigation of many known condensed matter phenomena such as superfluid-insulator transition, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) crossover, and Anderson localization.

In addition, ultra-cold atomic and molecular gases reveal completely new phenomena which might previously have seemed very challenging or even impossible to realize or imagine. Applications of ultracold gases range from quantum computers and quantum simulators to ultra-high-precision atomic clocks and quantum metrology.

The aim of the international ICTP conference, which took place from 10 to 14 January 2011, was to discuss current research frontiers, with a focus on the analysis of novel quantum phases and quantum phase transitions in mono-atomic gases, mixtures of fermionic and bosonic atoms in traps and optical lattices and its applications to quantum information processing and metrology. The conference was co-sponsored by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), National Physical Laboratory, Goa University, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and ICTP.

Below: Conference participants.