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arXiv:1409.3234 · Physical Review A

Realizing exactly solvable SU(N) magnets with thermal atoms

Michael E. Beverland, Gorjan Alagic, Michael J. Martin, Andrew Koller, Ana María Rey, Alexey Vyacheslavovich Gorshkov

Published May 6, 2016• 23 citations
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Abstract

We show that $n$ thermal fermionic alkaline-earth-metal atoms in a flat-bottom trap allow one to robustly implement a spin model displaying two symmetries: the ${S}_{n}$ symmetry that permutes atoms occupying different vibrational levels of the trap and the $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ symmetry associated with $N$ nuclear spin states. The symmetries make the model exactly solvable, which, in turn, enables the analytic study of dynamical processes such as spin diffusion in this $\mathrm{SU}(N$) system. We also show how to use this system to generate entangled states that allow for Heisenberg-limited metrology. This highly symmetric spin model should be experimentally realizable even when the vibrational levels are occupied according to a high-temperature thermal or an arbitrary nonthermal distribution.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.93.051601

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We show that nnn thermal fermionic alkaline-earth-metal atoms in a flat-bottom trap allow one to robustly implement a spin model displaying two symmetries: the Sn{S}_{n}Sn​ symmetry that permutes atoms occupying different vibrational levels of the trap and the SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) symmetry associated with NNN nuclear spin states. The symmetries make the model exactly solvable, which, in turn, enables the analytic study of dynamical processes such as spin diffusion in this SU(N\mathrm{SU}(NSU(N) system. We also show how to use this system to generate entangled states that allow for Heisenberg-limited metrology. This highly symmetric spin model should be experimentally realizable even when the vibrational levels are occupied according to a high-temperature thermal or an arbitrary nonthermal distribution.
We calculate the collective modes of ultracold trapped alkaline-earth-metal fermionic atoms, which possess an SU(N\mathrm{SU}(NSU(N) symmetry of the nuclear spin degree of freedom and a controllable NNN, with NNN as large as 10. We calculate the breathing and quadrupole modes of two-dimensional and three-dimensional harmonically trapped gases in the normal phase. We particularly concentrate on two-dimensional gases, where the shift is more accessible experimentally, and the physics has special features. We present results as a function of temperature, interaction strength, density, and NNN. We include calculations across the collisionless to hydrodynamic crossover. We assume the gas is interacting weakly, such that it can be described by a Boltzmann-Vlasov equation that includes both mean-field terms and the collision integral. We solve this with an approximate scaling ansatz, taking care in two dimensions to preserve the scaling symmetry of the system. We predict the collective-mode frequency shifts and damping, showing that these are measurable in experimentally relevant regimes. We expect these results to furnish powerful tools to characterize interactions and the state of alkaline-earth-metal gases, as well as to lay the foundation for future work, for example, on strongly interacting gases and SU(N)\mathrm{SU}(N)SU(N) spin modes.
Rapid advancements in the experimental capabilities with ultracold alkaline-earth-like atoms (AEAs) bring to a surprisingly near term the prospect of performing quantum simulations of spin models and lattice field theories exhibiting SU( N ) symmetry. Motivated in particular by recent experiments preparing high density samples of strongly interacting 87 Sr atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice, we develop a low-energy effective theory of fermionic AEAs which exhibits emergent multi-body SU( N )-symmetric interactions, where N is the number of atomic nuclear spin levels. Our theory is limited to the experimental regime of (i) a deep lattice, with (ii) at most one atom occupying each nuclear spin state on any lattice site. The latter restriction is a consequence of initial ground-state preparation. We fully characterize the low-lying excitations in our effective theory, and compare predictions of many-body interaction energies with direct measurements of many-body excitation spectra in an optical lattice clock. Our work makes the first step in enabling a controlled, bottom-up experimental investigation of multi-body SU( N ) physics.
Abstract Symmetries play a crucial role in understanding phases of matter and the transitions between them. Theoretical investigations of quantum models with SU( N ) symmetry have provided important insights into many-body phenomena. However, these models have generally remained a theoretical idealization, since it is very difficult to exactly realize the SU( N ) symmetry in conventional quantum materials for large N . Intriguingly however, in recent years, ultracold alkaline-earth-atom (AEA) quantum simulators have paved the path to realize SU( N )-symmetric many-body models, where N is tunable and can be as large as 10. This symmetry emerges due to the closed shell structure of AEAs, thereby leading to a perfect decoupling of the electronic degrees of freedom from the nuclear spin. In this work, we provide a systematic review of recent theoretical and experimental work on the many-body physics of these systems. We first discuss the thermodynamic properties and collective modes of trapped Fermi gases, highlighting the enhanced interaction effects that appear as N increases. We then discuss the properties of the SU( N ) Fermi–Hubbard model, focusing on some of the major experimental achievements in this area. We conclude with a compendium highlighting some of the significant theoretical progress on SU( N ) lattice models and a discussion of some exciting directions for future research.
We study Mott insulators of fermionic alkaline earth atoms, described by Heisenberg spin models with enhanced SU(N) symmetry. In dramatic contrast to SU(2) magnetism, more than two spins are required to form a singlet. On the square lattice, the classical ground state is highly degenerate and magnetic order is thus unlikely. In a large-N limit, we find a chiral spin liquid ground state with topological order and Abelian fractional statistics. We discuss its experimental detection. Chiral spin liquids with non-Abelian anyons may also be realizable with alkaline earth atoms.
Spin-resolved microscopy of 87^{87}87Sr SU(NNN) Fermi-Hubbard systems
Quantum-gas microscopes provide direct access to the phases of the Hubbard model, bringing microscopic insight into the complex competition between interactions, SU(2) magnetism, and doping. Alkaline-earth(-like) fermions extend this spin-1/2 paradigm by realizing higher symmetries and giving access to SU(NNN) Hubbard models, with rich phase diagrams to be unveiled. Despite its fundamental interest, a microscopic exploration of SU(NNN) quantum systems has remained elusive. Here we report the realization of a quantum-gas microscope for fermionic 87^{87}87Sr. Our imaging scheme, based on cooling and fluorescence on the narrow intercombination line at 689 nm, enables spin-resolved single-atom detection. By implementing a spin-selective optical pumping protocol, we determine the occupation of each of the 10 spin states in a single experimental realization, a crucial capability for probing site-resolved magnetic correlations. We benchmark our method by observing single-particle Larmor precession across the full spin-9/2 ground-state manifold and use numerical simulations of SU(NNN) Fermi-Hubbard chains, incorporating the measured detection fidelities, to demonstrate its capability to resolve many-body spin correlations. Our results establish 87^{87}87Sr quantum-gas microscopy as a powerful approach to study exotic magnetism in the SU(NNN) Fermi-Hubbard model, and provide a new detection tool for studies in quantum simulation, computation, and metrology.
Ultracold fermionic alkaline earth atoms confined in optical lattices realize Hubbard models with internal SU(N) symmetries, where N can be as large as ten. Such systems are expected to harbor exotic magnetic physics at temperatures below the superexchange energy scale. Employing quantum Monte Carlo simulations to access the low-temperature regime of one-dimensional chains, we show that after adiabatically loading a weakly interacting gas into the strongly interacting regime of an optical lattice, the final temperature decreases with increasing N. Furthermore, we estimate the temperature scale required to probe correlations associated with low-temperature SU(N) magnetism. Our findings are encouraging for the exploration of exotic large-N magnetic states in ongoing experiments.