Nobel prize panel: Atomic Physics: past, present and future

The ICAP 2018 will host a panel discussion with six Nobel laureates, some of the key players in the development of the field, on the main achievements of atomic physics, on the current trends and on the foreseeable ones in the near future.

Atomic physics has since its early foundations evolved in completely unexpected ways renewing itself and opening stimulating new research directions. Starting with the understanding of the atomic structure and passing for instance, through the generation of laser light, the development of cooling and trapping techniques for atoms and ions, the achievement of Bose Einstein condensation and degenerated Fermi gases, the manipulation of single and few quanta, the following of ultrafast dynamics, development of high precision measurements resolutions. All these spectacular advances of atomic, molecular and optical physics and the current ones make clear that the future of the field is very promising and engaging.

Confirmed participants are:

• Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (NP 1997)
  • For development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
• William D. Phillips (NP 1997)
  • For development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
• Wolfgang Ketterle (NP 2001)
  • For the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates
• Theodor W. Hänsch (NP 2005)
  • For their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique
• Roy J. Glauber (NP 2005)
  • For his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence
• Serge Haroche (NP 2012)
  • For ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems