Stereographic Visualization of Bose-Einstein Condensate Clouds to Measure the Gravitational Constant
Term of Award
Spring 2016
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mathematics (M.S.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Department
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Committee Chair
Yan Wu
Committee Member 1
Mark Edwards
Committee Member 2
Goran Lesaja
Abstract
This thesis describes a set of tools that can be used for the rapid design of atom interferometer schemes suitable for measuring Newton's Universal Gravitation constant also known as "Big G". This tool set is especially applicable to Bose--Einstein--condensed systems present in NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory experiment to be deployed to the International Space Station in 2017. These tools include a method of approximating the solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger or Gross--Pitaevskii equation (GPE) using the Lagrangian Variational Method. They also include a set of software tools for translating the approximate solutions of the GPE into images of the optical density into a format suitable for visualization with sterographic (3D) movies played back through a virtual--reality headset.
Recommended Citation
Wells, Ed Wesley, "Stereographic Visualization of Bose-Einstein Condensate Clouds to Measure the Gravitational Constant" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1436.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1436
Included in
Condensed Matter Physics Commons, Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces Commons, Numerical Analysis and Computation Commons, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing Commons, Partial Differential Equations Commons, Quantum Physics Commons
