Quantum critical phenomena originate from collective behavior of strongly correlated particles and lie at the heart of universal low-energy properties in many-body systems. The strong correlation between quantum particles is particularly prominent in a low-dimensional system. In the first part of this Chapter, we identify what types of measurements are relevant to one-dimensional low-energy properties and address how they qualitatively alter the underlying quantum critical behavior. In the second part, we study how the measurement backaction influences on quantum phase transitions in higher dimensions by focusing on the Bose-Hubbard model. For all the theoretical considerations, we discuss possible experimental implementations in ultracold atomic gases.
Quantum critical phenomena originate from collective behavior of strongly correlated particles and lie at the heart of universal low-energy properties in many-body systems. The strong correlation between quantum particles is particularly prominent in a low-dimensional system. In the first part of this Chapter, we identify what types of measurements are relevant to one-dimensional low-energy properties and address how they qualitatively alter the underlying quantum critical behavior. In the second part, we study how the measurement backaction influences on quantum phase transitions in higher dimensions by focusing on the Bose-Hubbard model. For all the theoretical considerations, we discuss possible experimental implementations in ultracold atomic gases.
A system of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice provides a powerful platform for quantum simulation. In our laboratory, we use a quantum gas microscope to tune lattice parameters not only in a global scale but also at the level of individual sites. This allows us to control and detect the quantum state of interacting many-body systems as well as to engineer a broad class of Hamiltonians with high fidelity. Leveraging this versatility, we can realize several types of strongly correlated bosonic systems, which present intriguing behaviors and implement novel phases of matter. Analyzing snapshots of the atomic distribution with single-site resolution, we measure correlations and entanglement within these systems to reveal their main features, including non-equilibrium dynamics and quantum phase transitions. In this thesis, I present the works performed by our team for four different types of systems. First of all, I briefly introduce the behavior of a 1D disordered system in the critical regime between the thermal and the many-body-localized phases. In particular, we discuss what happens when a disordered and a non-disordered region are coupled via a single site. We find evidence for accelerated transport of thermal inclusion into the localized region, which shows the existence of a quantum avalanche, i.e. thermalization via accelerated transport throughout the localized system. In the second part, we realize a fractional quantum Hall state using an artificial gauge field, by implementing an adiabatic preparation protocol. We identify a topological phase transition in our system and characterize several key physical features expected for a Laughlin state by measuring density correlations and Hall conductivity. The next topic of this thesis relates to quantum magnetism. Mapping nearest hopping in a tilted optical lattice to spin flips, we realize a finite one-dimensional chain of 1/2-spins with closed boundary conditions. We perform an in-depth investigation on behaviors shown across the quantum phase transition between paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic ground states, including the evolution of the magnetization and Néel order parameter. Also, we find evidence for quantum superposition at the many-body level as a result of geometric frustration. In the last chapter, I report the experimental realization of a novel dipolar Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, based on a strongly tilted lattice system. When the tilt becomes the dominant energy scale, the Hamiltonian is fragmented, and the system behaves in a way that conserves dipole moment. Starting from a 1D chain of unity filled sites, we generate individual dipolar and anti-dipolar excitations at desired pinpoints. We observe quantum walks of these dipolar quasi-particles as well as their scattering dynamics, which allows us to study this new type of Hamiltonian using a bottom-up approach.
Ultracold atomic gases may be the ultimate quantum simulator.These isolated systems have the lowest temperatures in the observable universe, and their properties and interactions can be precisely and accurately tuned across a full spectrum of behaviors, from few-body physics to highly-correlated many-body effects.The ability to impose potentials on and tune interactions within ultracold gases to mimic complex systems mean they could become a theorist's playground.One of their great strengths, however, is also one of the largest obstacles to this dream: isolation.This thesis touches on both of these themes.First, methods to characterize phases and quantum critical points, and to construct finite temperature phase diagrams using experimentally accessible observables in the Bose Hubbard model are discussed.Then, the transition from a weakly to a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in the continuum is analyzed using zero temperature numerical techniques.Real materials can be emulated by ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical lattice potentials.We discuss the characteristics of a single boson species trapped in an optical lattice (described by the Bose Hubbard model) and the hallmarks of the quantum critical region that separates the superfluid and the Mott insulator ground states.We propose a method to map the quantum critical region using the single, experimentally accessible, local quantity R, the ratio of compressibility to local number fluctuations.The procedure to map a phase diagram with R is easily generalized to inhomogeneous systems and generic many-body Hamiltonians.We illustrate it here using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the 2D Bose Hubbard model.Secondly, we investigate the transition from a degenerate Fermi gas weakly coupled List of Tables Table Page 2.1 Techniques to Probe Atoms in Optical Lattices . . . . . .
Ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices form almost ideal conditions to analyze the physics of strongly correlated quantum phases in periodic potentials. Such strongly correlated quantum phases are of fundamental interest in condensed matter physics, because they lie at the heart of topical quantum materials, such as high-Tc superconductors and quantum magnets, which pose a challenge to our basic understanding of interacting many-body systems. Quite generally, such strongly interacting quantum phases arise when the interaction energy between two particles dominates over the kinetic energy of the two particles. Such a regime can either be achieved by increasing the interaction strength between the atoms via Feshbach resonances or by decreasing the kinetic energy, such that eventually the interaction energy is the largest energy scale in the system. The latter can, for example, simply be achieved by increasing the optical lattice depth. This chapter tries gives an introduction into the field of optical lattices and the physics of strongly interacting quantum phases. A prominent example hereof is the superfluid-to-Mott insulator transition, which transforms a weakly interacting quantum gas into a strongly correlated many body system. Dominating interactions between the particles are in fact crucial for the Mott insulator transition and also for the realization of controlled interaction-based quantum gates, of which several have been successfully realized experimentally.
This article briefly reviews recent theoretical developments in quantum critical phenomena in one-dimensional (1D) integrable quantum gases of cold atoms. We present a discussion on quantum phase transitions, universal thermodynamics, scaling functions and correlations for a few prototypical exactly solved models, such as the Lieb–Liniger Bose gas, the spin-1 Bose gas with antiferromagnetic spin-spin interaction, the two-component interacting Fermi gas as well as spin-3/2 Fermi gases. We demonstrate that their corresponding Bethe ansatz solutions provide a precise way to understand quantum many-body physics, such as quantum criticality, Luttinger liquids (LLs), the Wilson ratio, Tan's Contact, etc. These theoretical developments give rise to a physical perspective using integrability for uncovering experimentally testable phenomena in systems of interacting bosonic and fermonic ultracold atoms confined to 1D.
1. Introduce quantum phase transition in the Bose-Hubbard model. 2. Emphasize vanishing energy scales and universality at the quantum critical point. 3. Introduce microscopic theories to describe the quantum phase transition, and explicitly show the vanishing of energy scales and the critical exponents. 4. Illustrate the emergent Lorentz symmetry and the Higgs mode at the quantum critical point of the Bose-Hubbard model with the particle-hole symmetry. 5. Discuss an experimental probe of the superfluid to the Mott insulator phase transition. 6. Show that the repulsive and the attractive Fermi-Hubbard models are related by the particle-hole symmetry. 7. Discuss the origin of antiferromagnetic order in the repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model at half-filling. 8. Introduce the enlarged SO(4) symmetry of the Fermi-Hubbard model at half-filling and zero spin imbalance and its physical concequence. 9. Introduce important unsolved challenge issues in the Fermi-Hubbard model. 10. Introduce the concept of eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and many-body localization as opposite to thermalization. 11. Introduce a few metrics to characterize the many-body localization. 12. Emphasize the role of entanglement entropy in characterizing quantum thermalization, and discuss how to measure entanglement entropy in ultracold atom systems.
These lecture notes present an introduction to the strongly correlated regime of low dimensional atomic gases. The discussion is concentrated on situations in which the strongly correlated limit is achieved by creating degeneracies in the one-particle motional states. Three different schemes of experimental relevance are analyzed: bosonic atoms in a two dimensional rapidly rotating trap, bosonic atoms in a one dimensional optical lattice, and bosonic atoms with frozen motional degrees of freedom and two internal states. The corresponding entangled multiparticle states (Laughlin liquids, Mott phases, squeezed states), and the different strongly correlated phenomena that appear (fermionization, fractional statistics) are studied. Emphasis is given to the possibility of observing novel strongly correlated phenomena as well as to the possible implementations for quantum computation and quantum information.