Quantum Critical Behavior in Strongly Interacting Rydberg Gases

Hendrik Weimer, Robert Löw, Tilman Pfau, and Hans Peter Büchler
Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 250601 – Published 15 December 2008

Abstract

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.

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  • Received 23 June 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250601

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Hendrik Weimer1,*, Robert Löw2, Tilman Pfau2, and Hans Peter Büchler1

  • 1Institute of Theoretical Physics III, Universität Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany
  • 25. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany

  • *hweimer@itp3.uni-stuttgart.de

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 25 — 19 December 2008

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