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