Atomic Quantum Dots Coupled to a Reservoir of a Superfluid Bose-Einstein Condensate

We study the dynamics of an atomic quantum dot, i.e., a single atom in a tight optical trap which is coupled to a superfluid reservoir via laser transitions. Quantum interference between the collisional interactions and the laser induced coupling results in a tunable dot-bath coupling, allowing an essentially complete decoupling from the environment. Quantum dots embedded in a 1D Luttinger liquid of cold bosonic atoms realize a spin-boson model with Ohmic coupling, which exhibits a dissipative phase transition and allows us to directly measure atomic Luttinger parameters.