2025/03/19 by Shiraki, Soma, Eli Barkai, Barkai, Eli +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-induced spectroscopy and plasma #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.15027
openalex publication_date 2025/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Laser cooling of atomic motion enables advances in quantum information and precision metrology. However, the spatial spreading of subrecoil-laser-cooled atoms-crucial for understanding cooling mechanisms and atomic confinement-remains largely unexplored. Here, we analyze anomalous diffusion in subrecoil-laser-cooled atoms, where a velocity-dependent fluorescence rate R(v)∝|v|α governs transport properties. By tuning α, we uncover transitions between normal, subdiffusive, and superdiffusive regimes. Notably, at α=3/2, diffusion is minimized, leading to optimal atomic confinement. We further identify a conceptual link between subrecoil laser cooling and the Pomeau-Manneville map from nonlinear dynamics, revealing that anomalous diffusion can generically exhibit a nontrivial minimum in spatial spreading-even across seemingly unrelated physical systems.