Abstract:

A ferromagnetic spin-1 Rb-87 BEC exhibits a second-order gapless quantum
phase transition due to the competition between magnetic and collisional
spin interaction energies. We will discuss our recent experiment
investigations of this transition, including the generation of squeezed
and entangled spin states, novel quantum control techniques and universal
Kibble-Zurek power-law scaling of the excitations for slow quenches
through the critical point. Additionally, we will discuss our
investigations of the energy gap of the system and adiabaticity near the
quantum critical point.