Rostock 2019 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 26: Ultra-cold atoms (joint session A/Q)

Q 26.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 10:30–10:45, S HS 1 Physik

Developing an experimental toolbox for the quantum simulation of high energy physics — •Alexander Mil, Apoorva Hedge, Fabian Olivares, Markus K. Oberthaler, and Fred Jendrzejewski — Kirchhoff Institut für Physik, Universität Heidelberg

Within the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the interaction between fundamental particles is described by gauge theories. These theories have an enormous predictive power, but in many regimes, especially out of equilibrium, their theoretical treatment is exceedingly difficult. Consequently, high-energy physics contains many unsolved problems, for instance Schwinger pair production [1]. Our aim is to build an analog quantum simulator for simple lattice gauge theories with ultracold atomic gases.

We follow the proposal by Kasper et al. [2] and Zache et al. [3] to engineer a model system for quantum electrodynamics (QED) in one dimension using atomic mixtures. In this approach, we use an optical lattice structure with alternatingly populated sites of sodium and lithium. The fermionic matter field in the QED Hamiltonian is described by the lithium atoms whereas the bosonic gauge field is described by the sodium atoms. The gauge coupling is engineered by interspecies spin changing collision between sodium and lithium. In this talk, I will present our progress towards the realization of such simple lattice gauge theories.

[1] Kasper et al. Phys.Let. B 760, 742 (2016) [2] Kasper et al. NJP 19, 023030 (2017). [3] Zache et al. Quantum Sci. Technol. 3, 034010 (2018).