Lévy Statistics and Laser Cooling : How Rare Events Bring Atoms to Rest

A graduate-level book for researchers in atomic physics, quantum optics, and statistical physics, written by world leaders in the fields of laser cooling and light-atom interactions. They demonstrate how Lévy statistics can be applied to problems where Gaussian statistics are inadequate, using laser cooling of atoms as a case study.

Laser cooling of atoms provides an ideal case study for the application of Levy statistics in a privileged situation where the statistical model can be derived from first principles. This book demonstrates how the most efficient laser cooling techniques can be simply and quantitatively understood in terms of non-ergodic random processes dominated by a few rare events. Levy statistics are now recognised as the proper tool for analysing many different problems for which standard Gaussian statistics are inadequate. Laser cooling provides a simple example of how Levy statistics can yield analytic predictions that can be compared to other theoretical approaches and experimental results. The authors of this book are world leaders in the fields of laser cooling and light-atom interactions, and are renowned for their clear presentation. This book will therefore hold much interest for graduate students and researchers in the fields of atomic physics, quantum optics, and statistical physics.