Correlated Exciton Transport in Rydberg-Dressed-Atom Spin Chains

We investigate the transport of excitations through a chain of atoms with non-local dissipation introduced through coupling to additional short-lived states. The system is described by an effective spin-1/2 model where the ratio of the exchange interaction strength to the reservoir coupling strength determines the type of transport, including coherent exciton motion, incoherent hopping and a regime in which an emergent length scale leads to a preferred hopping distance far beyond nearest neighbors. For multiple impurities, the dissipation gives rise to strong nearest-neighbor correlations and entanglement. These results highlight the importance of non-trivial dissipation, correlations and many-body effects in recent experiments on the dipole-mediated transport of Rydberg excitations.Comment: 5 page

An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose-Einstein condensation transition. An electrode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg--Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to a special issue of 'Frontiers of Physics' dedicated to 'Quantum Foundation and Technology: Frontiers and Future

Elmira soaring contest, 1930

This report details the Elmira, New York soaring contest of 1930 and provides up-current maps, experiences in piloting, distance flights, and a few details on glider design

Full counting statistics of laser excited Rydberg aggregates in a one-dimensional geometry

We experimentally study the full counting statistics of few-body Rydberg aggregates excited from a quasi-one-dimensional Rydberg gas. We measure asymmetric excitation spectra and increased second and third order statistical moments of the Rydberg number distribution, from which we determine the average aggregate size. Direct comparisons with numerical simulations reveal the presence of liquid-like spatial correlations, and indicate sequential growth of the aggregates around an initial grain. These findings demonstrate the importance of dissipative effects in strongly correlated Rydberg gases and introduce a way to study spatio-temporal correlations in strongly-interacting many-body quantum systems without imaging.Comment: 6 pages plus supplemen

Design Studies of an Electrostatic Storage Ring

Electrostatic storage rings combine a number of very interesting characteristics that make them an attractive tool in the low energy range. In contrast to magnetic rings, all of the fields in an electrostatic storage ring are completely mass independent. At the same particle energy and charge state, ions from light protons to heavy biomolecules can in principal be stored with identical field setups. A small ring for ions of energies up to 50 keV is planned to be built up at Goethe University in Frankfurt. Different designs have been calculated and the results are presented in this contribution. Furthermore, prototypes of the necessary optical elements have been manufactured and are described as well