Cooling a solid to its ground state

Friday, November 11, 2011 - 16:00 to 16:50
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Professor
University of Pittsburgh

Abstract or Additional Information

A major goal of quantum computing research is to drain all quanta q of thermal energy from a solid at a positive temperature T0>0, leaving the object in its ground state. In 2010 the first complete success was reported when a quantum drum was cooled to its ground state at T0=20mK. However, current theory, which is based on the Bose-Einstein equation, predicts that temperature T0 as q0.

We prove that this discrepancy between experiment and theory is due to previously unobserved errors in low temperature predictions of the Bose-Einstein equation. We correct this error and derive a new formula for temperature which proves that TT0>0 as q0. For experimental data our temperature formula predicts that T0=9.8mK, in close agreement with the 20mK experimental result.

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