A lesson with the Nobels
The collaboration between Cornell and Ketterle and a research group of the Physics Department
Interview by Francesca Menna to Eric Cornell and Wolfgang Ketterle

Within the BEC Summer programme, the workshop “Recent developments in the physics of cold atomic gases” was held at the Physics Department from July 15 to July 18. Many international experts participated in the meeting; among them Eric Cornell and Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize for Physics 2001. On that occasion they also met with about 60 students of the last year of the secondary schools of Trentino and other near regions to explain them how the complex problems of Physics can be faced in a simple and funny way.

Which is your relationship with the University of Trento?
Cornell: I have visited Trento on several occasions to meet with the excellent research group led by Sandro Stringari and Lev Pitaevskii, with whom I have been in contact for years. Among the projects we realized in cooperation I would like to mention a paper which I published in Physical Review Letters, a paper coauthored by Professor Stringari and some of his collaborators.
Ketterle: For the past 6 years, I had frequent interactions with the theory group led by Sandro Stringari and Lev Pitaevskii. Their theoretical work has stimulated our experimental work, and vice versa. I have met many people from Trento at various conferences, and I was pleased to meet them now in Trento.

Which has been the way which led you to the Nobel Prize?
Ketterle: To reach Bose-Einstein condensation has been a dream for many researchers for a long time, but in the early 90’s we realized that there was a new way to accomplish this, and it worked!

Why are the studies of the Bose-Einstein Condensation important? To which developments and applications will your studies lead?
Ketterle: Those studies provide new insight into properties of coherent atomic matter, and lead to advances in the field of many-body theory. The applications are in the area of precision measurements. With ultracold atoms and condensates, it should be possible to improve the precision of sensors for gravity and rotation.

Some impressions about the experience at the University of Trento within the BEC programme?
Cornell: The conference was very successful, with a great many interesting talks and useful discussions. The Trento Physics Department hosted the meeting, providing a lovely location for the event.
Ketterle: I enjoyed the week. It was a perfect conference with an intimate atmosphere and many stimulating discussions.

“Physics is fun” was the title of the meeting you had with the school students. What was the aim of that meeting, what did you show to the students and how did they react?
Ketterle: In my lecture, I tried to convey the excitement of modern physics and to demonstrate that it is a fun job to be a physicist. My impression was that the students enjoyed the presentation and got some idea of what is going on in one area of physics.