Correlations and Entanglement in Cold Atomic Gases

For many years, cold atomic gas experiments have pursued the detection and study of correlated phases of matter, analogous to those in condensed matter systems. This project will focus on the implications of the most exciting recent experimental developments, including the realization of continuum quantum gas microscopes that can accurately measure atom densities in real space. This research is relevant to recent studies of different Quantum Computation platforms. In addition, the project will contribute towards our understanding of experiments that realize "analog gravity" phenomena that connect cold atomic gases to astrophysical phenomena like Hawking radiation and the expansion of the universe. The team will also explore novel phases and quantum effects, including superfluidity and entanglement, helping guide future experiments in this growing field. The team has a strong history of training undergraduate and graduate students in the exciting field of correlated cold atomic gases. Our proposed work continues this research training and also includes concrete ideas for improving undergraduate education at LSU. The project will address the technical challenge of predicting novel phases of matter of cold bosons and fermions and turning those predictions into sharp predictions for experiments. The research on continuum quantum gas microscopes will address the behavior of superfluids near a surface and how these microscopes can probe exotic superfluid phases like the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state and how it can quantify quantum entanglement of atomic gases. The work on analog gravity systems will provide novel predictions for how ring-shaped and spherical Bose-Einstein condensates can realize analog inflationary universes exhibiting quantum particle production. The PI will also study the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, which connects non-Fermi liquid behavior of fermions to the physics of black holes, developing generalizations of this model that can be realized in a cold atomic gas experiment and exhibit nontrivial superfluid pairing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.