Quantum many-body systems with Rydberg atoms

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One of the central topics of modern condensed matter physics is the studies of quantum many-body systems. Quantum many-body systems with controllable long-range interactions play important roles in, for instance, technologies of quantum computation and its corresponding simulations at physical level.It has been known that long-range interactions can be induced with laser dressing (neutral) atoms into the so-called Rydberg state. Atoms in Rydberg state have weak binding between its nucleus and outer electrons (i.e., the outer electrons are far away from its nucleus), such weak binding causes large polarization within the atom and in turn leads to strong dipole interactions between atoms in Rydberg state. The advantage of laser controllable long-range interaction is that the interaction would be highly customizable. Researchers can now not only turn on or off the interaction but also change the shape of the interaction by tuning the incoming laser, so that more complex quantum many-body systems can be experimentally constructed. Theoretical researches around these new quantum systems would be active, new analytical or numerical methods are most likely developed around these quantum systems. The PhD research will focus on applying novel numerical methods to study quantum many-body systems of either free or trapped Rydberg atoms.