Quantum Many-Body Dynamics of Matter and Light in Cavity-QED

这个项目的首要目标是通过研究在高精细光学腔中与光耦合的超冷原子来提高我们对多体系统量子动力学的理解。这种设置提供了前所未有的控制外部电势、相互作用和耗散的水平，并具有精确的实时监控。我们将测试现有的范式，以及开发和基准新的理论模型。三个理论小组，两个在德国(MPIPKS和萨尔布吕肯大学)，一个在奥地利(因斯布鲁克大学)，将量子光学和原子物理的专业知识与多体理论(计算和场论)和统计物理结合在一起。实验将由瑞士节点在ETHZ和EPFL进行。这两组加在一起，代表了全世界腔实验中所有量子气体的三分之一以上，在量子统计(玻色子原子与费米子原子)、特征时间尺度以及原子间相互作用类型方面具有互补性。具体地说，该项目的目标是探索量子亚稳性，这些亚稳性来自于腔介导的相互作用及其与短程原子间相互作用的竞争，来自诸如规范不变性之类的约束，或者来自系统以自束缚液滴的形式形成局域态的趋势。在研究中，驱动力和耗散发挥了中心作用，不仅在改变刚才提到的情景中，而且在创造新的静止或非静止的多体状态方面也是如此。此外，还将探索空穴诱导的耗散作为减少熵和改进优化等量子算法的资源。

The overarching goal of this project is to improve our understanding of the quantum dynamics of many-body systems through the study of ultracold atoms coupled to light in a high-finesse optical cavity. This setup offers an unprecedented level of control of external potentials, interactions, and dissipation, with precise real-time monitoring. We will test existing paradigms as well as develop and benchmark new theoretical models. Three theoretical groups, two in Germany (MPIPKS and Saarbrücken University) and one in Austria (Innsbruck University), combine expertise from quantum optics and atomic physics with many-body theory (computational and field-theoretical) and statistical physics. Experiments will be performed by the Swiss nodes, at ETHZ and at EPFL. Taken together, these two groups represent more than one third of all quantum gases in cavity experiments worldwide and are complementary in terms of quantum statistics (bosonic versus fermionic atoms), characteristic timescales, as well as types of interatomic interactions. In particular, the project aims at exploring quantum metastability originating from cavity-mediated interactions and its competition with short-range interatomic interactions, from constraints like gauge invariance, or from the tendency of the system to form localized states in the form of self-bound droplets. A central role in the investigations is played by drive and dissipation, not only in modifying the scenarios just mentioned, but also in creating novel stationary or also non-stationary many-body states. In addition, cavity-induced dissipation will be explored as a resource for reducing entropy and improving quantum algorithms such as optimization.