Quantum Critical Behavior in Strongly Interacting Rydberg Gases

Journal Article · Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.101.250601· OSTI ID:21180016

Weimer, Hendrik; Buechler, Hans Peter ^[1]; Loew, Robert; Pfau, Tilman ^[2]

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1. Institute of Theoretical Physics III, Universitaet Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart (Germany)
2. 5. Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart (Germany)

We study the appearance of correlated many-body phenomena in an ensemble of atoms driven resonantly into a strongly interacting Rydberg state. The ground state of the Hamiltonian describing the driven system exhibits a second order quantum phase transition. We derive the critical theory for the quantum phase transition and show that it describes the properties of the driven Rydberg system in the saturated regime. We find that the suppression of Rydberg excitations known as blockade phenomena exhibits an algebraic scaling law with a universal exponent.

• OSTI ID: 21180016
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 25; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250601; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EXCITATION
GASES
GROUND STATES
HAMILTONIANS
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RYDBERG STATES
SCALING LAWS