Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 15: Poster I
A 15.52: Poster
Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster
Universal scaling in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas — •Robert Löw1, Vera Bendkowsky1, Björn Butscher1, Johannes Nipper1, Hendrik Weimer1, Jonathan Balewski1, James P. Shaffer1,2, Hans Peter Büchler1, and Tilman Pfau1 — 1Universität Stuttgart, Germany — 2University of Oklahoma, USA
Universal scaling near a quantum critical point is theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated in a strongly interacting Rydberg gas.
The experiments are performed in a dense cloud of magnetically trapped Rubidium atoms resonantly driven into a Rydberg state. Due to the strong van-der-Waals interaction of the Rydberg atoms blockade effects occure. The coherent collective excitation dynamics were recently studied [1]. We show that the experimental data show a collapse to a universal scaling function in one single dimensionless parameter.
The system can theoretically be described by a mean field model [2] that show a universal scaling near an experimentally accessable critical point. Numerical simulations as well as the mean field model are in good agreement with the experimentally observed critical exponents.
[1] Heidemann et al, PRL 100, 013002 (2007)
[2] Weimer et al, PRL in press