PHYS626
Introduction to Atomic, Molecular, and Optical physics

Course description

This course focuses on Modern Applications of Atomic Physics. The first half of the course will include introduction to fundamental atomic physics essential to the understanding of the other topics and approximation methods. The second part of the course will include selected topics in modern atomic physics: atomic clocks and their applications to the search for the variation of fundamental constants and dark matter, quantum information with atoms, and others.

Lecture 1

Review of hydrogen atom. Angular momentum

Addition of angular momenta

Lectures 2 - 3

Hydrogen atom. Relativistic corrections of energy terms: relativistic mass correction, Darwin term, and spin-orbit term.

Fine structure. Lamb shift. Hyperfine structure.

Lecture 4

Hydrogenic ions. Identical particles. The Helium atom.

Building-up principle of the electron shell for larger atoms

Lecture 5

Building-up principle of the electron shell for larger atoms.

Electronic configurations and ground state terms. Hund’s rules

Lecture 6

Alkali-metal atoms

Alkaline-earth metal atoms & their singly-charged ions

The Hartree-Fock method

Lectures 7 - 8

Modern Applications of Atomic Physics

The proton radius puzzle. Variation of fundamental constants. Atomic clocks. Quantum information. Studies of fundamental symmetries

Lecture 9

Dirac-Hartree-Fock code. Second-order perturbation theory and running second-order code. Atomic calculations and the search for the variation of the fine-structure constant

Lecture 10

Interaction of atoms with external fields. Zeeman effect

Lectures 11 - 12

Hydrogen atom in electric field. Quadratic Stark effect. Atomic polarizability. Emission and absorption of electromagnetic radiation by atoms. Transition probabilities and selection rules. Lifetimes of atomic states

Lecture 13

The amazing story of laser cooling and trapping. Bose-Einstein condensation.

Lectures 14

Atomic clocks

Lecture 15

Introduction to dark matter

Lecture 16

Search for physics beyond the standard model with atomic clocks

Lecture 17

Quantum computation with neutral atoms

Lecture 18

Quantum computation of trapped ions