Experimental Aspects of Transition Phenomena in Quantum Optics

F. T. Arecchi

Adam Bühler

In this dissertation we focus on many-body phenomena on a quantum level. In particular fermionic quantum gases in a temperature regime approaching absolute zero. Ultracold quantum gases have proven to be a versatile framework for Theorists and Experimentalists to probe many-body quantum mechanics. They also serve to quantum simulate solid state problems in a clean and controllable environment. The use of optical lattices include the advantage of tuning the required lattice structure nearly at will and lack the experimental shortcomings compared to the solid state, like the presence of lattice dislocations. The relevant lattice parameters can be easily tuned without changing the setup. In recent years many goals within theory and experiments of ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices were achieved. This emphasizes the significance of ongoing research with ultracold quantum gases on optical lattices. We present two aspects of modern theory of ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices. On the one hand, we implement orbital physics in a setup of optical lattices and on the other, we find elusive Majorana fermions in a setup with ultracold fermionic gases. Both aspects are well-known in solid state systems, but did not make the step towards ultracold quantum gases so far. We propose and investigate setups to quantum simulate these challenges in the framework of optical lattices. The first part of this work concerns the implementation of orbital physics in optical lattices. The orbital structure of atoms reveals novel phenomena in solid state systems. This raises the interest in creating optical lattice systems exhibiting analog behavior, as dictated by the orbitals in the solid state. We derive the microscopic Hamiltonian for a p-orbital system and investigate it in detail. For this Hamiltonian we perform a mean-field treatment and discover novel phase transitions including a possible tricritical point. In the analysis of the strong coupling regime we find an additional phase transition towards an antiferromagnet and then extend the mean-field phase diagram. Concluding the investigations is a proposal of an experimental setup to achieve orbital physics with state-of-the-art experimental tools. The second part of this work considers Majorana modes and p-wave superfluids. Majorana modes are not only present in high-energy physics, but also in condensed matter systems. Here we demonstrate a setup in order to simulate Majorana modes and p-wave superfluids in optical lattices. We derive an effective Hamiltonian and investigate it on a mean-field level as well as give the mean-field phase diagram. It contains a rich manifold of different p-wave phases. In addition, we extend our investigations to topological properties of our system and provide the topological phase diagram. We discover the special phenomena that the mean-field and topological phase transitions are decoupled in our system. The proposed system is suited to have Majorana modes at vortices and dislocations, which are injected into the system in controllable experimental manner. We conclude the considerations by giving a protocol for braiding in order to demonstrate non-Abelian statistics of Majorana modes.

S. G. Lipson

Klaus M. Gheri, Daniel F. Walls

Michel Comte, H. Graillot, Ph.J. Kupecek

D. J. Thouless

H E Stanley Oxford: University Press 1971 pp xx + 308 price £5 In the past fifteen years or so there has been a lot of experimental and theoretical work on the nature of critical phenomena in the neighbourhood of second order phase transitions. It has not been easy to get a good overall view of this work without digging through the rather complex original literature, although there are some good review articles covering particular aspects of the work.