Chaotic inflation limits for non-minimal models with a Starobinsky attractor

We investigate inflationary attractor points by analyzing non-minimally coupled single field inflation models in two opposite limits; the `flat' limit in which the first derivative of the conformal factor is small and the `steep' limit, in which the first derivative of the conformal factor is large. We consider a subset of models that yield Starobinsky inflation in the steep conformal factor, strong coupling, limit and demonstrate that they result in chaotic inflation in the opposite flat, weak coupling, limit. The suppression of higher order powers of the inflaton field in the potential is shown to be related to the flatness condition on the conformal factor. We stress that the chaotic attractor behaviour in the weak coupling limit is of a different, less universal, character than the Starobinsky attractor. Agreement with the COBE normalisation cannot be obtained in both attractor limits at the same time and in the chaotic attractor limit the scale of inflation depends on the details of the conformal factor, contrary to the strong coupling Starobinsky attractor.Comment: v2: 4 figures added, refs added, minor textual change

Atomic Gases at Negative Kinetic Temperature

We show that thermalization of the motion of atoms at negative temperature is possible in an optical lattice, for conditions that are feasible in current experiments. We present a method for reversibly inverting the temperature of a trapped gas. Moreover, a negative-temperature ensemble can be cooled, reducing abs(T), by evaporation of the lowest-energy particles. This enables the attainment of the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition at negative temperature.Comment: 4 pages 5 figures; v4: Typo corrections. Accepted Phys. Rev. Let

Superpixel-based spatial amplitude and phase modulation using a digital micromirror device

We present a superpixel method for full spatial phase and amplitude control of a light beam using a digital micromirror device (DMD) combined with a spatial filter. We combine square regions of nearby micromirrors into superpixels by low pass filtering in a Fourier plane of the DMD. At each superpixel we are able to independently modulate the phase and the amplitude of light, while retaining a high resolution and the very high speed of a DMD. The method achieves a measured fidelity $F=0.98$ for a target field with fully independent phase and amplitude at a resolution of $8\times 8$ pixels per diffraction limited spot. For the LG$_{10}$ orbital angular momentum mode the calculated fidelity is $F=0.99993$, using $768\times 768$ DMD pixels. The superpixel method reduces the errors when compared to the state of the art Lee holography method for these test fields by $50\%$ and $18\%$, with a comparable light efficiency of around $5\%$. Our control software is publicly available.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Magnetic field control of elastic scattering in a cold gas of fermionic lithium atoms

We study elastic collisions in an optically trapped spin mixture of fermionic lithium atoms in the presence of magnetic fields up to 1.5kG by measuring evaporative loss. Our experiments confirm the expected magnetic tunability of the scattering length by showing the main features of elastic scattering according to recent calculations. We measure the zero crossing of the scattering length that is associated with a predicted Feshbach resonance at 530(3)G. Beyond the resonance we observe the expected large cross section in the triplet scattering regime

Wavelength dependence of light diffusion in strongly scattering macroporous gallium phosphide

We present time-resolved measurements of light transport through strongly scattering macroporous gallium phosphide at various vacuum wavelengths between 705 nm and 855 nm. Within this range the transport mean free path is strongly wavelength dependent, whereas the observed energy velocity is shown to be independent of the wavelength. We conclude that microscopic resonances, which can strongly slow down the diffusion process in, e.g., granular TiO2, are absent in macroporous gallium phosphide in the wavelength region of concern