Strong correlations in few-fermion systems

Andrea Bergschneider

Published Jan 1, 2017• 1 citation

Abstract

In this thesis, I report on the deterministic preparation and the observation of strongly correlated few-fermion systems in single and double-well potentials. In a first experiment, we studied a system of one impurity interacting with a number of majority atoms which we prepared in a single potential well in the one-dimensional limit. With increasing number of majority particles, we observed a decrease in the quasi-particle residue which is in agreement with expectations from the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe. In a second experiment, we prepared two fermions in a double-well potential which represents the fundamental building block of the Fermi-Hubbard model. By increasing the repulsion between the two fermions, we observed the crossover into the antiferromagnetic Mott-insulator regime. Furthermore, I describe a new imaging technique, which allows spin-resolved single-atom detection both in in-situ and in time-of-flight. We use this technique to investigate the emergence of momentum correlations of two repulsive fermions in the ground state of the double well. With the methods developed in this thesis, we have established a framework for quantum simulation of strongly correlated many-body systems in tunable potentials.

DOI: 10.11588/heidok.00023328

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