Long-range interacting quantum gases in spatially separated traps

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Shannon Whitlock
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Optik, Quantenoptik und Physik der Atome, Moleküle und Plasmen
• Förderung: Förderung von 2012 bis 2017
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 219454484

This project will experimentally investigate strongly correlated quantum matter at the boundary of few-body and many-body physics using long-range interacting atomic gases in one-dimensional (1D) traps. We will realise a strongly dipolar Fermi gas for the first time and directly image quantum correlations in new physical regimes. For this a new experimental apparatus will be developed to combine trapped 1D gases with optical coupling to Rydberg states (“Rydberg dressing”), as a means to introduce and control atomic interactions in a totally new fashion. The level of control possible extends far beyond what has been possible in other atomic or condensed matter systems. Our experiments will focus on the fundamentally new phases of matter which arise in spatially separated traps coupled by long-range interactions (“coupled biwire systems”). By adding a lattice along the traps it will be possible to realise coupled spin chains with spin-dependent interactions. Through complete access to the microscopic degrees of freedom, our results will shed new light on quantum effects in complex many-body phenomena, elucidating the effects of quantum statistics and correlations in 1D quantum gases, the roles of dynamics and quantum entanglement near quantum phase transitions, and the emergence of macroscopic effects such as superfluidity and magnetism in quantum systems.

• DFG-Verfahren: Emmy Noether-Nachwuchsgruppen
• Großgeräte: Electron multiplying CCD camera ; Rydberg excitation laser for 575 nm und 460 nm ; Single mode laser for optical traps and lattices
• Gerätegruppe: 5430 Hochgeschwindigkeits-Kameras (ab 100 Bilder/Sek) ; 5700 Festkörper-Laser