Decoherence of Impurities in a Fermi Sea of Ultracold Atoms

Dipolar physics: a review of experiments with magnetic quantum gases

Since the achievement of quantum degeneracy in gases of chromium atoms in 2004, the experimental investigation of ultracold gases made of highly magnetic atoms has blossomed. The field has yielded the observation of many unprecedented phenomena, in particular those in which long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions (DDIs) play a crucial role. In this review, we aim to present the aspects of the magnetic quantum-gas platform that make it unique for exploring ultracold and quantum physics as well as to give a thorough overview of experimental achievements. Highly magnetic atoms distinguish themselves by the fact that their electronic ground-state configuration possesses a large electronic total angular momentum. This results in a large magnetic moment and a rich electronic transition spectrum. Such transitions are useful for cooling, trapping, and manipulating these atoms. The complex atomic structure and large dipolar moments of these atoms also lead to a dense spectrum of resonances in their two-body scattering behaviour. These resonances can be used to control the interatomic interactions and, in particular, the relative importance of contact over dipolar interactions. These features provide exquisite control knobs for exploring the few- and many-body physics of dipolar quantum gases. The study of dipolar effects in magnetic quantum gases has covered various few-body phenomena that are based on elastic and inelastic anisotropic scattering. Various many-body effects have also been demonstrated. These affect both the shape, stability, dynamics, and excitations of fully polarised repulsive Bose or Fermi gases. Beyond the mean-field instability, strong dipolar interactions competing with slightly weaker contact interactions between magnetic bosons yield new quantum-stabilised states, among which are self-bound droplets, droplet assemblies, and supersolids. Dipolar interactions also deeply affect the physics of atomic gases with an internal degree of freedom as these interactions intrinsically couple spin and atomic motion. Finally, long-range dipolar interactions can stabilise strongly correlated excited states of 1D gases and also impact the physics of lattice-confined systems, both at the spin-polarised level (Hubbard models with off-site interactions) and at the spinful level (XYZ models). In the present manuscript, we aim to provide an extensive overview of the various related experimental achievements up to the present.

Strongly Interacting Bose Polarons in Two-Dimensional Atomic Gases and Quantum Fluids of Polaritons

Polarons are quasiparticles relevant across many fields in physics: from condensed matter to atomic physics. Here, we study the quasiparticle properties of two-dimensional strongly interacting Bose polarons in atomic Bose–Einstein condensates and polariton gases. Our studies are based on the non-self consistent T-matrix approximation adapted to these physical systems. For the atomic case, we study the spectral and quasiparticle properties of the polaron in the presence of a magnetic Feshbach resonance. We show the presence of two polaron branches: an attractive polaron, a low-lying state that appears as a well-defined quasiparticle for weak attractive interactions, and a repulsive polaron, a metastable state that becomes the dominant branch at weak repulsive interactions. In addition, we study a polaron arising from the dressing of a single itinerant electron by a quantum fluid of polaritons in a semiconductor microcavity. We demonstrate the persistence of the two polaron branches whose properties can be controlled over a wide range of parameters by tuning the cavity mode.

Sudden quench of harmonically trapped mass-imbalanced fermions

Dynamical properties of two-component mass-imbalanced few-fermion systems confined in a one-dimensional harmonic trap following a sudden quench of interactions are studied. It is assumed that initially the system is prepared in the non-interacting ground state and then, after a sudden quench of interactions, the unitary evolution is governed by interacting many-body Hamiltonian. By careful analysis of the evolution of the Loschmidt echo, density distributions of the components, and entanglement entropy between them, the role of mass imbalance and particle number imbalance on the system's evolution stability are investigated. All the quantities studied manifest a dramatic dependence on the number of heavy and lighter fermions in each component at a given quench strength. The results may have implications for upcoming experiments on fermionic mixtures with a well-defined and small number of particles.

Exploring Ultracold Collisions in ^{6}Li-^{53}Cr Fermi Mixtures: Feshbach Resonances and Scattering Properties of a Novel Alkali-Transition Metal System

We investigate ultracold collisions in a novel mixture of ^{6}Li and ^{53}Cr fermionic atoms, discovering more than 50 interspecies Feshbach resonances via loss spectroscopy. Building a full coupled-channel model, we unambiguously characterize the ^{6}Li-^{53}Cr scattering properties and yield predictions for other isotopic pairs. In particular, we identify various Feshbach resonances that enable the controlled tuning of elastic s- and p-wave ^{6}Li-^{53}Cr interactions. Our studies thus make lithium-chromium mixtures emerge as optimally suited platforms for the experimental search of elusive few- and many-body regimes of highly correlated fermionic matter, and for the realization of a new class of ultracold polar molecules possessing both electric and magnetic dipole moments.

Repulsive Fermi and Bose Polarons in Quantum Gases

Polaron quasiparticles are formed when a mobile impurity is coupled to the elementary excitations of a many-particle background. In the field of ultracold atoms, the study of the associated impurity problem has attracted a growing interest over the last fifteen years. Polaron quasiparticle properties are essential to our understanding of a variety of paradigmatic quantum many-body systems realized in ultracold atomic gases and in the solid state, from imbalanced Bose–Fermi and Fermi–Fermi mixtures to fermionic Hubbard models. In this topical review, we focus on the so-called repulsive polaron branch, which emerges as an excited many-body state in systems with underlying attractive interactions such as ultracold atomic mixtures, and is characterized by an effective repulsion between the impurity and the surrounding medium. We give a brief account of the current theoretical and experimental understanding of repulsive polaron properties, for impurities embedded in both fermionic and bosonic media, and we highlight open issues deserving future investigations.

Orthogonality catastrophe and quantum speed limit for spin chain at finite temperature

We present an interesting relationship between the orthogonality catastrophe (OC) and the quantum speed limit (QSL) for a spin chain with uniform nearest neighbour couplings perturbed by an impurity spin. We thoroughly study the catastrophic QSL that specifies a bound on the evolution time between the initial and final states and in this respect, link it to the emerging OC effect. It is found that the speed of state evolution subtle but fundamental, and the bound characterized by QSL shows the same behaviours as the OC effect in the thermodynamic limit. It allows us to reveal some universal properties, in particular finite temperature effects. Significantly, the threshold of temperature and system size is clearly demonstrated for the QSL under finite temperature.

Connecting Scrambling and Work Statistics for Short-Range Interactions in the Harmonic Oscillator

We investigate the relationship between information scrambling and work statistics after a quench for the paradigmatic example of short-range interacting particles in a one-dimensional harmonic trap, considering up to five particles numerically. In particular, we find that scrambling requires finite interactions, in the presence of which the long-time average of the squared commutator for the individual canonical operators is directly proportional to the variance of the work probability distribution. In addition to the numerical results, we outline the mathematical structure of the N-body system which leads to this outcome. We thereby establish a connection between the scrambling properties and the induced work fluctuations, with the latter being an experimental observable that is directly accessible in modern cold-atom experiments.

Polaritons in an Electron Gas—Quasiparticles and Landau Effective Interactions

Two-dimensional semiconductors inside optical microcavities have emerged as a versatile platform to explore new hybrid light–matter quantum states. A strong light–matter coupling leads to the formation of exciton-polaritons, which in turn interact with the surrounding electron gas to form quasiparticles called polaron-polaritons. Here, we develop a general microscopic framework to calculate the properties of these quasiparticles, such as their energy and the interactions between them. From this, we give microscopic expressions for the parameters entering a Landau theory for the polaron-polaritons, which offers a simple yet powerful way to describe such interacting light–matter many-body systems. As an example of the application of our framework, we then use the ladder approximation to explore the properties of the polaron-polaritons. Furthermore, we show that they can be measured in a non-demolition way via the light transmission/reflection spectrum of the system. Finally, we demonstrate that the Landau effective interaction mediated by electron-hole excitations is attractive leading to red shifts of the polaron-polaritons. Our work provides a systematic framework to study exciton-polaritons in electronically doped two-dimensional materials such as novel van der Waals heterostructures.

Polaron Interactions and Bipolarons in One-Dimensional Bose Gases in the Strong Coupling Regime

Bose polarons, quasiparticles composed of mobile impurities surrounded by cold Bose gas, can experience strong interactions mediated by the many-body environment and form bipolaron bound states. Here we present a detailed study of heavy polarons in a one-dimensional Bose gas by formulating a nonperturbative theory and complementing it with exact numerical simulations. We develop an analytic approach for weak boson-boson interactions and arbitrarily strong impurity-boson couplings. Our approach is based on a mean-field theory that accounts for deformations of the superfluid by the impurities and in this way minimizes quantum fluctuations. The mean-field equations are solved exactly in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, leading to an analytic expression for the interaction potential of heavy polarons, which is found to be in excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) results. In the strong coupling limit, the potential substantially deviates from the exponential form valid for weak coupling and has a linear shape at short distances. Taking into account the leading-order Born-Huang corrections, we calculate bipolaron binding energies for impurity-boson mass ratios as low as 3 and find excellent agreement with QMC results.

Charged Polarons and Molecules in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Ultracold hybrid ion-atom gases represent an exciting frontier for quantum simulation offering a new set of functionalities and control. Here, we study a mobile ion immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate and show that the long-range nature of the ion-atom interaction gives rise to an intricate interplay between few- and many-body physics. This leads to the existence of several polaronic and molecular states due to the binding of an increasing number of bosons to the ion, which is well beyond what can be described by a short-range pseudopotential. We use a complementary set of techniques including a variational ansatz and field theory to describe this rich physics and calculate the full spectral response of the ion. It follows from thermodynamic arguments that the ion-atom interaction leads to a mesoscopic dressing cloud of the polarons, and a simplified model demonstrates that the spectral weight of the molecules scale with increasing powers of the density. We finally calculate the quantum dynamics of the ion after a quench experiment.

Initial Dynamics of Quantum Impurities in a Bose–Einstein Condensate

An impurity immersed in a medium constitutes a canonical scenario applicable in a wide range of fields in physics. Though our understanding has advanced significantly in the past decades, quantum impurities in a bosonic environment are still of considerable theoretical and experimental interest. Here, we discuss the initial dynamics of such impurities, which was recently observed in interferometric experiments. Experimental observations from weak to unitary interactions are presented and compared to a theoretical description. In particular, the transition between two initial dynamical regimes dominated by two-body interactions is analyzed, yielding transition times in clear agreement with the theoretical prediction. Additionally, the distinct time dependence of the coherence amplitude in these regimes is obtained by extracting its power-law exponents. This benchmarks our understanding and suggests new ways of probing dynamical properties of quantum impurities.

Quasiparticle Lifetime of the Repulsive Fermi Polaron

We investigate the metastable repulsive branch of a mobile impurity coupled to a degenerate Fermi gas via short-range interactions. We show that the quasiparticle lifetime of this repulsive Fermi polaron can be experimentally probed by driving Rabi oscillations between weakly and strongly interacting impurity states. Using a time-dependent variational approach, we find that we can accurately model the impurity Rabi oscillations that were recently measured for repulsive Fermi polarons in both two and three dimensions. Crucially, our theoretical description does not include relaxation processes to the lower-lying attractive branch. Thus, the theory-experiment agreement demonstrates that the quasiparticle lifetime is dominated by many-body dephasing within the upper repulsive branch rather than by relaxation from the upper branch itself. Our findings shed light on recent experimental observations of persistent repulsive correlations, and have important consequences for the nature and stability of the strongly repulsive Fermi gas.

In Situ Thermometry of a Cold Fermi Gas via Dephasing Impurities

The precise measurement of low temperatures is a challenging, important, and fundamental task for quantum science. In particular, in situ thermometry is highly desirable for cold atomic systems due to their potential for quantum simulation. Here, we demonstrate that the temperature of a noninteracting Fermi gas can be accurately inferred from the nonequilibrium dynamics of impurities immersed within it, using an interferometric protocol and established experimental methods. Adopting tools from the theory of quantum parameter estimation, we show that our proposed scheme achieves optimal precision in the relevant temperature regime for degenerate Fermi gases in current experiments. We also discover an intriguing trade-off between measurement time and thermometric precision that is controlled by the impurity-gas coupling, with weak coupling leading to the greatest sensitivities. This is explained as a consequence of the slow decoherence associated with the onset of the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe, which dominates the gas dynamics following its local interaction with the immersed impurity.

Radio-Frequency Response and Contact of Impurities in a Quantum Gas

We investigate the radio-frequency spectroscopy of impurities interacting with a quantum gas at finite temperature. In the limit of a single impurity, we show using Fermi's golden rule that introducing (or injecting) an impurity into the medium is equivalent to ejecting an impurity that is initially interacting with the medium, since the "injection" and "ejection" spectral responses are simply related to each other by an exponential function of frequency. Thus, the full spectral information for the quantum impurity is contained in the injection spectral response, which can be determined using a range of theoretical methods, including variational approaches. We use this property to compute the finite-temperature equation of state and Tan contact of the Fermi polaron. Our results for the contact of a mobile impurity are in excellent agreement with recent experiments and we find that the finite-temperature behavior is qualitatively different compared to the case of infinite impurity mass.

Dynamical Variational Approach to Bose Polarons at Finite Temperatures

We discuss the interaction of a mobile quantum impurity with a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms at finite temperature. To describe the resulting Bose polaron formation we develop a dynamical variational approach applicable to an initial thermal gas of Bogoliubov phonons. We study the polaron formation after switching on the interaction, e.g., by a radio-frequency (rf) pulse from a noninteracting to an interacting state. To treat also the strongly interacting regime, interaction terms beyond the Fröhlich model are taken into account. We calculate the real-time impurity Green's function and discuss its temperature dependence. Furthermore we determine the rf absorption spectrum and find good agreement with recent experimental observations. We predict temperature-induced shifts and a substantial broadening of spectral lines. The analysis of the real-time Green's function reveals a crossover to a linear temperature dependence of the thermal decay rate of Bose polarons as unitary interactions are approached.

Orthogonality Catastrophe as a Consequence of the Quantum Speed Limit

A remarkable feature of quantum many-body systems is the orthogonality catastrophe that describes their extensively growing sensitivity to local perturbations and plays an important role in condensed matter physics. Here we show that the dynamics of the orthogonality catastrophe can be fully characterized by the quantum speed limit and, more specifically, that any quenched quantum many-body system, whose variance in ground state energy scales with the system size, exhibits the orthogonality catastrophe. Our rigorous findings are demonstrated by two paradigmatic classes of many-body systems-the trapped Fermi gas and the long-range interacting Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick spin model.

Spectroscopic Signatures of Quantum Many-Body Correlations in Polariton Microcavities

We theoretically investigate the many-body states of exciton polaritons that can be observed by pump-probe spectroscopy in high-Q inorganic microcavities. Here, a weak-probe "spin-down" polariton is introduced into a coherent state of "spin-up" polaritons created by a strong pump. We show that the ↓ impurities become dressed by excitations of the ↑ medium, and that they form new polaronic quasiparticles that feature two-point and three-point many-body quantum correlations that, in the low density regime, arise from coupling to the vacuum biexciton and triexciton states, respectively. In particular, we find that these correlations generate additional branches and avoided crossings in the ↓ optical transmission spectrum that have a characteristic dependence on the ↑-polariton density. Our results thus demonstrate a way to directly observe correlated many-body states in an exciton-polariton system that go beyond classical mean-field theories.

Variational Approach for Impurity Dynamics at Finite Temperature

We present a general variational principle for the dynamics of impurity particles immersed in a quantum-mechanical medium. By working within the Heisenberg picture and constructing approximate time-dependent impurity operators, we can take the medium to be in any mixed state, such as a thermal state. Our variational method is consistent with all conservation laws and, in certain cases, it is equivalent to a finite-temperature Green's function approach. As a demonstration of our method, we consider the dynamics of heavy impurities that have suddenly been introduced into a Fermi gas at finite temperature. Using approximate time-dependent impurity operators involving only one particle-hole excitation of the Fermi sea, we find that we can successfully model the results of recent Ramsey interference experiments on ^{40}K atoms in a ^{6}Li Fermi gas. We also show that our approximation agrees well with the exact solution for the Ramsey response of a fixed impurity at finite temperature. Our approach paves the way for the investigation of impurities with dynamical degrees of freedom in arbitrary quantum-mechanical mediums.

Quench Dynamics and Orthogonality Catastrophe of Bose Polarons

We monitor the correlated quench induced dynamical dressing of a spinor impurity repulsively interacting with a Bose-Einstein condensate. Inspecting the temporal evolution of the structure factor, three distinct dynamical regions arise upon increasing the interspecies interaction. These regions are found to be related to the segregated nature of the impurity and to the Ohmic character of the bath. It is shown that the impurity dynamics can be described by an effective potential that deforms from a harmonic to a double-well one when crossing the miscibility-immiscibility threshold. In particular, for miscible components the polaron formation is imprinted on the spectral response of the system. We further illustrate that for increasing interaction an orthogonality catastrophe occurs and the polaron picture breaks down. Then a dissipative motion of the impurity takes place leading to a transfer of energy to its environment. This process signals the presence of entanglement in the many-body system.

Designer Spatial Control of Interactions in Ultracold Gases

Designer optical control of interactions in ultracold atomic gases has wide applications, from creating new quantum phases to modeling the physics of black holes. We demonstrate wide tunability and spatial control of interactions in a two-component cloud of ^{6}Li fermions, using electromagnetically induced transparency. With two control fields detuned ≃1.5  THz from atomic resonance, megahertz changes in the frequency of one optical beam tune the measured scattering length over the full range achieved by magnetic control, with negligible (10^{-6}) effect on the net optical confining potential. A 1D "sandwich" of resonantly and weakly interacting regions is imprinted on the trapped cloud and broadly manipulated with sub-MHz frequency changes. All of the data are in excellent agreement with our continuum-dressed state theoretical model of optical control, which includes both the spatial and momentum dependence of the scattering amplitude.

Time-Resolved Observation of Competing Attractive and Repulsive Short-Range Correlations in Strongly Interacting Fermi Gases

We exploit a time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopic technique to study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of an ultracold two-component Fermi gas, selectively quenched to strong repulsion along the upper branch of a broad Feshbach resonance. For critical interactions, we find the rapid growth of short-range anticorrelations between repulsive fermions to initially overcome concurrent pairing processes. At longer evolution times, these two competing mechanisms appear to macroscopically coexist in a short-range correlated state of fermions and pairs, unforeseen thus far. Our work provides fundamental insights into the fate of a repulsive Fermi gas, and offers new perspectives towards the exploration of complex dynamical regimes of fermionic matter.

Probing Energy-Dependent Feshbach Resonances by Optical Control

Optical control enables new high resolution probes of narrow collisional (Feshbach) resonances, which are strongly dependent on the relative momentum of colliding atom pairs, and important for simulating neutron matter with ultracold atomic gases. We demonstrate a two-field optical vernier, which expands kHz (mG) magnetic field detunings near a narrow resonance into MHz optical field detunings, enabling precise control and characterization of the momentum-dependent scattering amplitude. Two-photon loss spectra are measured for the narrow resonance in ^{6}Li, revealing rich structure in very good agreement with our theoretical model. However, anomalous overall frequency shifts between the measured and predicted two-photon spectra are not yet explained.

Universal many-body response of heavy impurities coupled to a Fermi sea: a review of recent progress

In this report we discuss the dynamical response of heavy quantum impurities immersed in a Fermi gas at zero and at finite temperature. Studying both the frequency and the time domain allows one to identify interaction regimes that are characterized by distinct many-body dynamics. From this theoretical study a picture emerges in which impurity dynamics is universal on essentially all time scales, and where the high-frequency few-body response is related to the long-time dynamics of the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe by Tan relations. Our theoretical description relies on different and complementary approaches: functional determinants give an exact numerical solution for time- and frequency-resolved responses, bosonization provides accurate analytical expressions at low temperatures, and the theory of Toeplitz determinants allows one to analytically predict response up to high temperatures. Using these approaches we predict the thermal decoherence rate of the fermionic system and prove that within the considered model the fastest rate of long-time decoherence is given by [Formula: see text]. We show that Feshbach resonances in cold atomic systems give access to new interaction regimes where quantum effects can prevail even in the thermal regime of many-body dynamics. The key signature of this phenomenon is a crossover between different exponential decay rates of the real-time Ramsey signal. It is shown that the physics of the orthogonality catastrophe is experimentally observable up to temperatures [Formula: see text] where it leaves its fingerprint in a power-law temperature dependence of thermal spectral weight and we review how this phenomenon is related to the physics of heavy ions in liquid [Formula: see text]He and the formation of Fermi polarons. The presented results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments on LiK mixtures, and we predict several new phenomena that can be tested using currently available experimental technology.

Observation of a Degenerate Fermi Gas Trapped by a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We report on the formation of a stable quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic ^{6}Li and bosonic ^{133}Cs in an optical trap by sympathetic cooling near an interspecies Feshbach resonance. New regimes of quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures are identified. With moderate attractive interspecies interactions, we show that a degenerate Fermi gas of Li can be fully confined in a Cs Bose-Einstein condensate without external potentials. For stronger attraction where mean-field collapse is expected, no such instability is observed. Potential mechanisms to explain this phenomenon are discussed.

Repulsive Fermi Polarons in a Resonant Mixture of Ultracold ^{6}Li Atoms

We employ radio-frequency spectroscopy to investigate a polarized spin mixture of ultracold ^{6}Li atoms close to a broad Feshbach scattering resonance. Focusing on the regime of strong repulsive interactions, we observe well-defined coherent quasiparticles even for unitarity-limited interactions. We characterize the many-body system by extracting the key properties of repulsive Fermi polarons: the energy E_{+}, the effective mass m^{*}, the residue Z, and the decay rate Γ. Above a critical interaction, E_{+} is found to exceed the Fermi energy of the bath, while m^{*} diverges and even turns negative, thereby indicating that the repulsive Fermi liquid state becomes energetically and thermodynamically unstable.

Ultrafast many-body interferometry of impurities coupled to a Fermi sea

The fastest possible collective response of a quantum many-body system is related to its excitations at the highest possible energy. In condensed matter systems, the time scale for such "ultrafast" processes is typically set by the Fermi energy. Taking advantage of fast and precise control of interactions between ultracold atoms, we observed nonequilibrium dynamics of impurities coupled to an atomic Fermi sea. Our interferometric measurements track the nonperturbative quantum evolution of a fermionic many-body system, revealing in real time the formation dynamics of quasi-particles and the quantum interference between attractive and repulsive states throughout the full depth of the Fermi sea. Ultrafast time-domain methods applied to strongly interacting quantum gases enable the study of the dynamics of quantum matter under extreme nonequilibrium conditions.

Quantum Dynamics of Ultracold Bose Polarons

We analyze the dynamics of Bose polarons in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance between the impurity and host atoms. We compute the radio-frequency absorption spectra for the case when the initial state of the impurity is noninteracting and the final state is strongly interacting with the host atoms. We compare results of different theoretical approaches including a single excitation expansion, a self-consistent T-matrix method, and a time-dependent coherent state approach. Our analysis reveals sharp spectral features arising from metastable states with several Bogoliubov excitations bound to the impurity atom. This surprising result of the interplay of many-body and few-body Efimov type bound state physics can only be obtained by going beyond the commonly used Fröhlich model and including quasiparticle scattering processes. Close to the resonance we find that strong fluctuations lead to a broad, incoherent absorption spectrum where no quasiparticle peak can be assigned.

Optical Control of Magnetic Feshbach Resonances by Closed-Channel Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

We control magnetic Feshbach resonances in an optically trapped mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states of a ^{6}Li Fermi gas, using two optical fields to create a dark state in the closed molecular channel. In the experiments, the narrow Feshbach resonance is tuned by up to 3 G. For the broad resonance, the spontaneous lifetime is increased to 0.4 s at the dark-state resonance, compared to 0.5 ms for single-field tuning. We present a new model of light-induced loss spectra, employing continuum-dressed basis states, which agrees in shape and magnitude with loss measurements for both broad and narrow resonances. Using this model, we predict the trade-off between tunability and loss for the broad resonance in ^{6}Li, showing that our two-field method substantially reduces the two-body loss rate compared to single-field methods for the same tuning range.