High-order counting statistics and interactions

Sven Bachmann, Gian Michele Graf, Gordey B. Lesovik

Anton Öttl, Stephan Ritter, Michael Köhl +1 more

We demonstrate time-resolved counting of single atoms extracted from a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms. The atoms are detected with a high-finesse optical cavity and single atom transits are identified. An atom laser beam is formed by continuously output coupling atoms from the Bose-Einstein condensate. We investigate the full counting statistics of this beam and measure its second order correlation function g((2))(tau) in a Hanbury Brown-Twiss type experiment. For the monoenergetic atom laser we observe a constant correlation function g((2))(tau)=1.00 +/- 0.01 and an atom number distribution close to a Poissonian statistics. A pseudothermal atomic beam shows a bunching behavior and a Bose distributed counting statistics.

Berislav Buča, Tomaž Prosen

We study the full counting statistics for interacting quantum many-body spin systems weakly coupled to the environment. In the leading order in the system-bath coupling, we derive exact spin current statistics for a large class of parity symmetric spin-1/2 systems driven by a pair of Markovian baths with local coupling operators. Interestingly, in this class of systems the leading-order current statistics are universal and do not depend on details of the Hamiltonian. Furthermore, in the specific case of a symmetrically boundary driven anisotropic Heisenberg (XXZ) spin-1/2 chain, we explicitly derive the third-order nonlinear corrections to the current statistics.

Christoph Bruder, Wolfgang Belzig

Matthieu Viteau, Paul H. Huillery, Mark G. Bason +6 more

The dipole blockade of Rydberg excitations is a hallmark of the strong interactions between atoms in these high-lying quantum states [M. Saffman, T. G. Walker, and K. Mølmer, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2313 (2010); D. Comparat and P. Pillet, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, A208 (2010)]. One of the consequences of the dipole blockade is the suppression of fluctuations in the counting statistics of Rydberg excitations, of which some evidence has been found in previous experiments. Here we present experimental results on the dynamics and the counting statistics of Rydberg excitations of ultracold rubidium atoms both on and off resonance, which exhibit sub- and super-Poissonian counting statistics, respectively. We compare our results with numerical simulations using a novel theoretical model based on Dicke states of Rydberg atoms including dipole-dipole interactions, finding good agreement between experiment and theory.

Dietrich Marcuse