Spin self-rephasing and very long coherence times in a trapped atomic ensemble.
We perform Ramsey spectroscopy on the ground state of ultracold 87Rb atoms magnetically trapped on a chip in the Knudsen regime. Field inhomogeneities over the sample should limit the 1/e contrast decay time to about 3 s, while decay times of 58 ± 12 s are actually observed. We explain this surprising result by a spin self-rephasing mechanism induced by the identical spin rotation effect originating from particle indistinguishability. We propose a theory of this synchronization mechanism and obtain good agreement with the experimental observations. The effect is general and may appear in other physical systems.
Deutsch
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Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS, UPMC, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
Ramirez-Martinez
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Lacroûte
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Reinhard
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Schneider
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Fuchs
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Piéchon
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Laloë
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Reichel
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Rosenbusch
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