2021/03/31 by Matthew Chilcott, Ryan Thomas, Niels Kjærgaard
Physics and Astronomy · #Bound state #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Collision #Complex plane #Feshbach resonance #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum defect #Resonance (particle physics) #S-matrix #S-matrix theory #Scattering #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevresearch.3.033209
published as Phys. Rev. Research 3, 033209 (2021) · for a movie of the flowing poles and their imprint on the scattering cross section, see https://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/data/nk/files/AnaCont.mp4
openalex created_date 2021/03/15 · arxiv created 2021/08/05 · openalex publication_date 2021/09/02 · arxiv updated 2021/09/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In quantum mechanics, collisions between two particles are captured by a scattering matrix which describes the transfer from an initial entrance state to an outgoing final state. Analyticity of the elements of this S matrix enables their continuation onto the complex energy plane and opens up a powerful and widely used framework in scattering theory, where bound states and scattering resonances for a physical system are ascribed to S-matrix poles. In the Gedankenexperiment of gradually changing the potential parameters of the system, the complex energy poles will begin to move, and in their ensuing flow, two poles approaching will interact. An actual observation of this intriguing interaction between scattering poles in a collision experiment has, however, been elusive. Here, we expose the interplay between two scattering poles relating to a shape resonance and a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance by studying ultracold atoms with a laser-based collider. We exploit the tunability of the Feshbach resonance to observe a compelling avoided crossing of the poles in their energies which is the hallmark of a strongly coupled system.