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Phys. Rev. A 77, 043606 (2008) [5 pages]

Quantum-limited position measurements of a dark matter-wave soliton

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Antonio Negretti1,*, Carsten Henkel2, and Klaus Mølmer1
1Lundbeck Foundation Theoretical Center for Quantum System Research, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
2Institut fur Physik, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

Received 10 December 2007; published 4 April 2008

We show that the position of a dark matter-wave soliton can be determined with a precision that scales with the atomic density as n−3/4. This surpasses the standard shot-noise detection limit for independent particles, without use of squeezing and entanglement, and it suggests that interactions among particles may present new advantages in high-precision metrology. We also take into account quantum density fluctuations due to phonon and Goldstone modes and we show that they, somewhat unexpectedly, actually improve the resolution. This happens because the fluctuations depend on the soliton position and make a larger amount of information available.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.043606
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.77.043606
PACS:
03.75.Nt, 06.20.Dk, 37.25.+k

*negretti@phys.au.dk