Project Details
Projekt
T3 Interplay of strong correlations with non-equilibrium noise in atomic gases
Applicant
Professor Oded Zilberberg, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 521530974
Exposing a system to external drives and losses can completely transform its state and response characteristics. Such out-of-equilibrium effects are often encountered in our day-to-day life. Yet, the microscopic quantum origin leading to these effects are often not understood. As a result, in our theories, we also tend to neglect or average over the microscopic details. In our research unit, we set to explore the microscopic details of quantum open system dynamics using cold atoms. Here, both system and environment are part of the larger tunable system and can be observed with fine resolution. We will harness our expertise in open systems to develop models that capture and harness the microscopic details of the system-environment coupling in the cold atomic setups. In collaboration with the expertise of the research unit members, we will furthermore develop protocols and observables that highlight these effects. In this subproject, our interest is focused on three main strands of the activity: First, we will study driven-dissipative phase transitions, where the controllable many-body setting allows us to explore nonlinear dynamics from a microscopic point of view. We intend to study the impact of different parametric drives, multiple spin species in the system, nonlinearities in the coupled optical cavities, as well as the impact of a structured dissipative environment. Using our Harmonic Balance approach, we can now systematically explore potential cascade to chaos of the system, and connect it the microscopic spatial rearrangement in the experiments. Second, instead of letting the environment overwhelm the system, we will explore the potential of the system to form a many-body strongly correlated state with its surrounding. We will study the realization of quantum impurities in cold atoms, and the build-up of long-ranged entanglement between system and environment. When mapping the experimental platforms to quantum impurity models, we will incorporate the impact of realistic imperfections (temperature, noise, etc.) that may challenge or modify the formation of the many-body state. We will furthermore develop tomography-based schemes to detect the many-body states. Last, in collaboration with the experimental activities, we will explore the realization and impact of quantum measurements in our setups. Indeed, a realistic detector consists of numerous particles that impinge on the system, interact with it, and lead to a measured detector signal and corresponding backaction. Crucially, as the system becomes more complex, additional backaction channels open up, leading to interesting novel effects, such as measurement-induced transport and phase transitions. We will design experiments to observe these effects in cold atoms. The ability to observe the microscopic details of the detector, will shed light on our understanding of quantum measurements, and facilitate the realization of one-way measurement-based quantum computing.
DFG Programme
Research Units
