Simulations of an atomic "Mach-Zehnder" interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate - a giant matter-wave containing thousands of atoms - is split in two halves and then recombined. From the way the two halves of the condensate interfere, it is possible to read-out very accurately what forces have been acting on the atoms.
Top left:
Schematics of the "light-sheet" imaging system. A cloud of a few thousands ultracold atoms levitates a few micrometers below the atom chip. To image it, it is released from its trap, falls down and expands until it crosses a thin sheet of laser light. Some of the light scattered by the atoms in the light sheet are then collected by a very sensitive CCD camera.
Quasi-breathers:
Simulation of the complex dynamics of the phase of two condensates in a double-well potential. Quantum fluctuations cause localized patterns to appear, grow and vanish at random times and positions.
 |
| SoundChart nr. 1: Simulation Of Atomic Interference Gruppe Jörg Schmiedmayer (ATI, TU Wien) |
About the piece:
This miniature sound composition entitled Holophonic Tail has been inspired by the image Simulation Of Atomic Interference. The initial sound is a fortississimo staccato piano sound at the lowest A (La). In the mix and after processing the initial sound six samples are used. Four short one for the attack at the beginning and two long sound samples for the resonance of them. The long samples are stretched with a non-linear algorithm using the audio processing software Mammut. This transformation produces dispersion effects with frequency sweeps. The second part of the piece is an exact reverse of the first. Each independent sound (phonos), in the piece contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). Holophonic Tail is best perceived as the synthesis of simultaneous sound streams into a coherent whole which I call Holophonic Musical Texture.
About the composer:
Panayiotis Kokoras studied composition with Yannis Ioannides, Henri Kergomard, and classical guitar with Evangelos Asimakopoulos in Athens, Greece. In 1999 he moved to England for postgraduate study at the University of York where he completed his MA and PhD in composition with Tony Myatt. His works have been commissioned by institutes and festivals such as the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard), IRCAM (France), MATA (New York), Gaudeamus (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), IMEB (France), Siemens Musikstiftung (Germany) and have been performed in over 400 concerts around the world.
His compositions have received 51 distinctions and prizes in international competitions, and have been selected by juries in more than 130 international calls for scores. He is founding member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and from 2004 to 2012 he was a board member and president. Kokoras’ sound compositions develop functional classification and matching sound systems written on what he calls Holophonic Musical Texture. As an educator, Kokoras has taught at the Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, and, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Since fall 2012 he has been appointed Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas.