Measuring correlations in an ensemble of lattice-trapped dipolar atoms

ORAL

Abstract

Understanding the buildup of correlations is an important aspect of studying quantum dynamics. In a recent theory-experiment collaboration, we perform collective spin measurements to investigate the two-body correlations between a large ensemble of ultracold chromium atoms frozen in a three dimensional optical lattice. The chromium atoms have spin S=3 and interact via long range and anisotropic dipolar interactions. From measuring the fluctuations of the total magnetization, we estimate the dynamical growth of the connected pairwise correlations associated with magnetization. We theoretically analyze the short- and long-time behaviors of the correlations as well as perform numerical simulations for the full time evolution, which are compared with experimental observations to access the quantum nature of the correlations. Our work shows that measuring fluctuations of spin populations provides new ways to characterize correlations in quantum many- body systems, for S> 1/2 spins.

*The Villetaneuse group acknowledges financial support from CNRS, Conseil R ´egional d'Ile-de-France under Sirteq Agency, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (project ANR- 18-CE47-0004), and QuantERA ERA-NET (MAQS project). A.M.R is supported by the AFOSR grant FA9550-18-1-0319, AFOSR MURI, by the DARPA DRINQs grant, the ARO single investigator award W911NF-19-1-0210, the NSF PHY1820885, NSF JILA- PFC PHY-1734006 grants, and by NIST.

Publication: Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 023401

Presenters

  • Bihui Zhu

    • University of Oklahoma

Authors

  • Bihui Zhu

    • University of Oklahoma
  • Youssef Aziz Alaou

    • Universite Paris 13, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, CNRS
  • Sean Robert Muleady

    • JILA, NIST and Department of Physics, University of Colorado
  • William Dubosclard

    • Universite Paris 13, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, CNRS
  • Tommaso Roscilde

    • Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique
  • Ana Maria Rey

    • JILA, NIST and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Bruno Laburthe-Tolra

    • Universite Paris 13, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, CNRS
  • Laurent Vernac

    • Universit ´e Paris 13, Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers