JILA and The Department of Physics

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

Objectives of the Center for Theoretical AMO Physics

This Center was formed in 1989 with funding from the National Science Foundation, until funding expired in 1999. While in existence, it provided a national resource for the Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics Community, through the mechanisms listed below. This page is being maintained at a minimal level, nevertheless, because of possible continuing interest in some of the online talks that can be accessed below. Nevertheless, it should be noted that we are no longer sponsoring workshops, and the Condon Postdoctoral Fellowship is no longer being awarded.

CTAMOP sponsored workshops in critical areas of Theoretical AMO Physics. These workshops were intended to focus on current problem areas in the field and to enhance the theoretical study of Experimental AMO Physics problems of current interest.

CTAMOP funds the research of a faculty member in the Physics Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder, in the general area of Theoretical AMO Physics. Murray Holland is the most recent addition to the Theoretical AMO Program in the Department of Physics and JILA. John Bohn is senior research associate in the program.

CTAMOP sponsors a series of informal AMO physics seminars each semester. These seminars are held in JILA S-105, 12:00 noon on Thursdays. Talks for the Fall '98 semester included:

Talks highlighted below with an asterisk* can be followed to hear/view the talk

                  September 17                Ronnie Kosloff                    JILA Visiting Fellow
                  October 15                  Jim Burke*                         JILA (Greene group)
                  October 29                  Tom Gorczyca*                     Western Michigan University
                  November 5                Charles Bennett*                IBM, J. Watson Research Center
                  November 12                 Deborah Watson                 University of Oklahoma
                  November 19               Howard Carmichael*            University of Oregon
                  December 3                 Robert Forrey*                      Harvard University
                  December 10                 Ken Kulander                      Lawrence Livermore National Lab

During its existence, CTAMOP supported the E. U. Condon Fellow: a postdoctoral research associate who was not tied to any single faculty member at JILA/CU, and therefore had unusual freedom to work on collaborative or independent research projects of the Fellow's own choosing. The E. U. Condon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is no longer active.

CTAMOP hosted an annual workshop on a topic which is current and vital to the atomic, molecular and optical physics community at large. These workshops drew speakers and participants from around the world. The 1999 workshop was titled 'Bose-Einstein Condensation and Degenerate Fermi Gases' to be held at JILA on February 10, 11, 12, 1999.

Two important resources in this field are (i) Harvard's Institute for Theoretical Atomic and Molecular Physics, ITAMP, and (ii) The Rochester Theory Center for Optical Science and Engineering

The CTAMOP Director was: Chris Greene, chg@jilacg.colorado.edu

A recent survey rates the Atomic and Molecular Physics program at CU as the best in the country. Here are some of the details from a Denver Post article.

The above picture is just a buffalo graphic.

Postscript versions of some recent papers can be found in the following FTP site: Theory papers. In one recent study, we (Esry et al.) have modeled a double condensate, including its EXPANSION(127K) after the trapping fields are turned off.

Here is one of my favorite equations. Thanks, Erwin Schroedinger, wherever you are. We're sorry that you never thought it related to the probability amplitude.