MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms

The Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA) brings together a community of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to pursue research in the new fields that that have been opened by the creation of ultracold atoms and quantum gases.

The CUA is supported by the National Science Foundation.

The core research program in the CUA consists of four collaborative experimental projects whose goals are to provide new sources of ultracold atoms and quantum gases, and new types of atom-wave devices. These projects will enable new research on topics such as quantum fluids, atom/photon optics, coherence, spectroscopy, ultracold collisions, and quantum devices. In addition, the CUA has a theoretical program centered on themes of quantum optics, many-body physics, wave physics, and atomic structure and interactions.

The research enabled by the CUA core projects will be carried out by undergraduate and graduate students, and postdocs, who are members of the research groups headed by the Principal Investigators. All of these groups collectively constitute the CUA community.

The CUA also pursues an educational and outreach mission. This includes a vigorous visitor program for graduate, postdoctoral, and senior researchers, and the sponsorship of workshops and seminars. The CUA has sponsored the International Conference in Atomic Physics, and a one-week summer school in atomic physics.

The Director of the CUA is Daniel Kleppner, Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics at MIT and Associate Director of MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. The Associate Director of the CUA is John M. Doyle, Professor of Physics at Harvard University.