“Vortices in a propagating laser beam simulate quantum fluid vortex dynamics ”

Mark Siemens

Monday,  April 3rd at 4:00 PM

120 Engineering (Hammond Auditorium)

Vortices are fundamental in a variety of fields, from turbulent superfluid helium and atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC), and even in the sun’s swirling atmosphere and dark matter filaments connecting galaxies. We study vortex dynamics in a propagating laser beam, an established formal analogy to quantum fluid dynamics. Optical vortex experiments have a number of advantages, including deterministic programming of the initial position, topology, and shape of each vortex in arbitrary arrangements, direct readout of the evolved complex field, low system cost, and room temperature operation. [Read More…]