Measuring pair correlations in Bose and Fermi gases via atom-resolved microscopy

ORAL

Abstract

We demonstrate atom-resolved detection of itinerant bosonic 23Na and fermionic 6Li quantum gases, enabling the direct in situ measurement of interparticle correlations. In contrast to prior work on lattice-trapped gases, here we realize microscopy of quantum gases in the continuum. We reveal Bose-Einstein condensation with single-atom resolution, measure the enhancement of twoparticle g(2) correlations of thermal bosons, and observe the suppression of g(2) for fermions; the Fermi or exchange hole. For strongly interacting Fermi gases confined to two dimensions, we directly observe non-local fermion pairs in the BEC-BCS crossover. We obtain the pairing gap, the pair size, and the short-range contact directly from the pair correlations. Our technique opens the door to the atom-resolved study of strongly correlated quantum gases of bosons, fermions, and their mixtures.

*This work was supported by the NSF CUA and PHY-2012110, AFOSR (FA955023-1-0402 and MURI), ARO (W911NF-23-1-0382 and DURIP), DOE (DE-SC0024622), DARPA APAQuS and the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (ONR N0001419-1-2631). R.J.F. acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Publication: ArXiv: 2411.08780

Presenters

  • Ruixiao Yao

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Authors

  • Ruixiao Yao

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Sungjae Chi

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Mingxuan Wang

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Richard J Fletcher

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Martin W. Zwierlein

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology