Engineering light-mediated interactions in dysprosium for quantum many-body physics
Abstract
This program will create a novel experimental platform for studying fermionic high-spin quantumgases under the influence of strong static and dynamic synthetic gauge fields and photonmediatedinteractions. The large spin of quantum gases such as dysprosium provides opportunitiesfor exploring exotic states of matter: 1) the spinor wavefunctions of the spin-21/2 particles canbe non-Abelian under SU(2) rotations, manifesting exotic topological textures, and 2) two-photonRaman-dressing of these spinors can lead to non-trivial topological matter. However, to engineerstrongly interacting versions of these systems, a density-independent source of interactionsis required since the magnetic dipolar interaction concomitant with these large spins introducesrapid trap loss due to dipolar relaxation. Low-density gases do not suffer this dipolar relaxationmechanism, but neither do they exhibit interaction-induced phenomena, since both scale with density.Our new system will get around this problem of loss-inducing interactions by allowing thehigh-spin atoms to strongly interact via photons, while maintaining low-density confinement. Wewill combine two technologies we pioneered—Dy quantum gas production (previously fundedby AFOSR) and multimode cavity QED with quantum gases—into one apparatus to explore thephysics of dynamical synthetic gauge fields in strongly interacting systems. Using the cavity fieldas one of the two Raman-legs produces a spontaneously induced artificial magnetic field. Exoticdynamical quantum Hall states and chiral insulators or liquids are expected, where the temperatureof the gas no longer limits ones ability to study these phases given the intrinsic driven-dissipativenature of the nonequilibrium system (worthy of investigation in its own right). Beyond exoticsuperradiant states, systems exhibiting exotic superfluidity and Messier effects and simulation ofdynamical gauge fields are possible.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 28, 2017
- Source ID
- FA95501710266
Entities
People
- Benjamin Lev
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Stanford University
- United States Air Force