New quantum phase realised in a cold-atom quantum simulator
For the first time, scientists have realised the Mott-Meissner quantum phase – implemented in an unprecedentedly large system.
Researchers at MPQ and LMU Munich, led by Monika Aidelsburger and Immanuel Bloch, have experimentally demonstrated a strongly interacting quantum phase – known as the Mott-Meissner phase. This phase emerges from the combined influence of strong interactions and an artificial magnetic field. Using a novel platform based on a cesium quantum gas microscope, the team prepared and observed many-body states with more than 24 particles in a 48-site flux ladder. Their results mark a major breakthrough: Previous experimental studies of interacting particles in artificial magnetic fields had been limited to system sizes involving only two particles. The study opens the door to investigating other quantum phenomena, such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, with microscopic precision and control. [...]
Read the full article: New quantum phase realised in a cold-atom quantum simulator
“Periodically driven quantum systems can realize phases of matter that do not appear in time-independent Hamiltonians. One application is the engineering of synthetic gauge fields, which enables the study of topological many-body physics with neutral atom quantum simulators. Here we realize the strongly interacting Mott–Meissner phase—a state combining interaction-induced localization with chiral currents induced by an artificial magnetic field—in large-scale bosonic flux ladders with 48 sites at half-filling using a neutral atom quantum simulator. By combining quantum gas microscopy with local basis rotations, we reveal the emerging equilibrium particle currents with local resolution across large systems. We find chiral currents exhibiting a characteristic interaction scaling, providing direct experimental evidence of the interacting Mott–Meissner phase. Moreover, we benchmark density correlations with numerical simulations and find that the effective temperature of the system is on the order of the tunnel coupling. These results establish the feasibility of scaling periodically driven quantum systems to large, strongly correlated phases, enabling further studies of topological quantum matter with single-atom resolution and control. [...]”
Original publication:
Strongly interacting Meissner phases in large bosonic flux ladders
A. Impertro, S. Huh, S. Karch, J.F. Wienand, I. Bloch & M. Aidelsburger