Quantum Simulation with Ultracold Metastable Helium in an Optical Lattice

对晶格中电子行为的了解导致了许多如今在日常生活中被视为理所当然的设备的发展。但关于晶格中强相互作用的电子，仍然有许多悬而未决的问题，例如，高温超导电性的解释。这是因为，由于粒子之间的量子关联，对这些系统进行建模很困难，而固态材料中的杂质阻碍了实验研究。该项目旨在开发一个量子模拟器，使用光学晶格中的超冷氦原子来模拟这样的系统。关联函数将通过检测单个原子来测量，这将提供一个新的观察值来表征多体晶格态。

Understanding the behaviour of electrons in a lattice has led to the development of numerous devices now taken for granted in everyday life. But there are still many open questions concerning strongly interacting electrons in a lattice, for example, an explanation of high temperature superconductivity. This is because modelling these systems is hard, due to the quantum correlations between particles, while impurities in solid state materials hinder experimental studies. This project aims to develop a quantum simulator using ultracold helium atoms in an optical lattice to model such systems. Correlation functions will be measured by detecting individual atoms, providing a new observable to characterise many-body lattice states.