News
Prof. Jonathan Oppenheim: Recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
Congratulations to Professor Jonathan Oppenheim on receiving a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Awarded to Jonathan for his work on "Quantum information science: Tools and applications for fundamental physics", he is one of three members of UCL staff to receive the annual prize for 2013. More...
Published: Jun 17, 2013 4:37:02 PM
European Network 'Thermodynamics in the quantum regime' Launched
The kick-off of a large-scale European network
for research in 'Thermodynamics in the Quantum Regime' was celebrated
in Brussels on Tues 30 April 2013. The successful proposal for one of the prestigious COST
network grants, funded by the ESF, was led by UCL's researcher Dr Janet Anders.
More...
Published: May 1, 2013 9:58:55 AM
Quantum Magic
In a recent STFC newsletter, UK news from CERN, Dr Stephen Hogan describes how he, and a team of international collaborators are investigating the properties of antimatter. The AEGIS experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator, in CERN has been designed to exploit techniques Stephen developed to accelerate antihydrogen atoms in excited states; to transport them and make beams suitable for measurements of the acceleration of antimatter in the Earth's gravitational field. More...
Published: Feb 14, 2013 12:14:34 PM
Theoretical Physics of Molecules and Quantum Systems
The AMOPP group has a number of theoretical research programs including:
- Theoretical molecular physics (Prof Jonathan Tennyson)
- Quantum dynamics and quantum chaos (Prof Tania Monteiro)
- Ultracold molecules and collisions (Prof Jonathan Tennyson)
- Atoms and molecules in intense laser fields (Dr Carla Figueira de Morisson Faria and Prof Jonathan Tennyson)
Please read below for more details.
Theoretical molecular physics
The molecular theory group
develops methods based on first principles quantum mechanics for
studying the structure, spectra and collision properties of molecules.
Research in the group is a mixture of studying fundamental problems
such as ultra cold molecular collisions and electron and positron molecule collisions, and application of theoretical methods to key areas such as astrophysics and atmospheric physics, where as part of the CAVIAR consortium
we are trying to determine the physical basis of the so-called water
continuum.
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The image on the left shows an artists impression of extra solar planet HD189733b. Calculations by the molecular theory group led directly to the detection of water in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter-like planet in 2007, the first molecule detected on an extra solar planet, see here for more details. The molecular theory group also works alongside the Quantemol company producing software model electron polyatomic molecule interactions for a variety of applications including plasma physics. More information about our theoretical molecular physics reseach can be found on the molecular theory group webpages. |
Quantum Dynamics and Quantum Chaos
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We have a program of work studying how
a quantum system behaves if the corresponding classical dynamics is chaotic:
'quantum chaos' is
important in a wide range of systems in atomic, molecular, optical, nuclear and mesoscopic
systems. At present we are working on three main projects:
For more information please see the Quantum Dynamics and Quantum Chaos group webpages. |
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Ultracold molecules and collisions
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The formation of ultracold molecules is a new and rapidly developing area in the physics of quantum degenerate gases. The aim of our research is to theoretically understand the dynamics of the association of molecules and its interplay with the bulk motion in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and quantum degenerate two component Fermi gases. The applications of our research are far reaching; they range from precise studies of two- and few-body ultracold collisions to the many-body physics of Cooper pairing of Fermions. Our ongoing research includes topics such as:
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Atoms and molecules in intense laser fields
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When atoms and molecules are exposed to extremely strong laser fields
novel and exciting processes can take place. At UCL we have an ongoing
program of experimental and theoretical work studying these processes
such as above threshold ionization, high-order harmonic generation,
electron recollision, and non-sequential double ionization. In recent
years, understanding these processes has led to the possibility of
using ultrashort laser pulses to image molecular processes on the
attosecond timescale and the angstrom length scale simultaneously. The
theory underpinning our understanding of these processes is being
actively developed by Carla Faria, and Jonathan Tennyson is extending R-matrix methods to apply to these problems. |
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