Light crystals for ultracold quantum degenerate bosonic gases

Full text follows. The experimental realization of quantum degenerate states in ultracold atomic gases has opened the possibility to realize few body systems isolated from external perturbations and at temperatures close to absolute zero. Under these conditions counterintuitive phenomena characteristic of the quantum mechanical evolution may be assessed experimentally. Matter quantum-mechanical waves inside periodic potentials investigated in solid-state physics, where electrons propagate within a crystal lattice. Interfering laser beams create a light-induced spatial periodic potential for ultracold atoms called an 'optical lattice'. Atoms hopping between the lattice periodic potential minima emulate the motion of electrons in a crystal. The creation of one-, two-, and three-dimensional periodic structures in which atoms can be trapped and accelerated, with the possibility of switching or modulating the lattice at will, gives a great flexibility. In addition atomic physicists can tune the lattice's geometry, the rate of hopping, and the push and pull between atoms within the light crystals. So they hope to map the various behaviors of solid-state models. On the basis of the research work performed at Pisa, several processes of quantum mechanics evolution within a spatial periodic potential and associated to the solid-state physics will be presented