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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Parametric amplification of vacuum fluctuations in a spinor condensate
C Klempt1, O Topic, G Gebreyesus
1Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
Abstract:
Parametric amplification of vacuum fluctuations is crucial in modern quantum optics, enabling the creation of squeezing and entanglement. We demonstrate the parametric amplification of vacuum fluctuations for matter waves using a spinor F=2 87Rb condensate. Interatomic interactions lead to correlated pair creation in the mF=±1 states from an initial mF=0 condensate, which acts as a vacuum for mF≠0. Although this pair creation from a pure mF=0 condensate is ideally triggered by vacuum fluctuations, unavoidable spurious initial mF=±1 atoms induce a classical seed which may become the dominant triggering mechanism. We show that pair creation is insensitive to a classical seed for sufficiently large magnetic fields, demonstrating the dominant role of vacuum fluctuations. The presented system thus provides a direct path towards the generation of nonclassical states of matter.
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