2008/03/31 by M. Merkl, F. E. Zimmer, Frank Zimmer +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Dirac (video compression format) #Dirac equation #Dynamics (music) #Equations of motion #Gauge (firearms) #Materials science #Motion (physics) #Physics #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Wave packet #Zitterbewegung #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/83/54002
6 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/31 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ultracold atoms which are subject to ultra-relativistic dynamics are investigated. By using optically induced gauge potentials we show that the dynamics of the atoms is governed by a Dirac-type equation. To illustrate this we study the trembling motion of the centre of mass for an effective two-level system, historically called Zitterbewegung. Its origin is described in detail, where in particular the role of the finite width of the atomic wave packets is seen to induce a damping of both the centre of mass dynamics and the dynamics of the populations of the two levels.