Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 12: Poster I - Interaction with external fields

A 12.1: Poster

Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster B

Berry Phases in a Hydrogen Atomic Beam Spin Echo Setup — Maarten DeKieviet, Sacher Khoudari, •Christian Roux, and Thorsten Schult — Physikalisches Institut, Uni Heidelberg

Berry Phases (BPs) in quantum mechanics, which are purely geometric in origin, have been measured using a wide variety of systems and techniques. In the last few years BPs have received renewed interest due to the possibility of using them as quantum computing gates. This is motivated by the belief that these phases should be naturally fault tolerant in the presence of external noise. In addition, latest theoretical results predict that BPs can be used to measure parity-violating effects in a hydrogen atomic beam spin echo setup. Measurements in light systems like the hydrogen atom are of great interest because theoretical calculations can be done with high accuracy and therefore may help to clarify the spin-puzzle of the nucleon.

The atomic beam spin echo technique gives an opportunity to separate the geometric from the quantum mechanical dynamic phase in appropriate magnetic fields and therefore allows a detailed study of the behavior of the BP. At present we are building an experimental setup capable of measuring BPs between 0 and 2π and, in analogy to the conventional dynamical Spin-Echo, a first “Berry-Echo“.