Abstract:  

Individually trapped neutral atoms provide a promising platform to engineer quantum many-body systems in a controlled, bottom-up approach. They can be readily manipulated in large numbers and interact strongly when excited to Rydberg states. In particular, this approach allows to arrange atoms in arbitrary 2D geometries. In this talk I will show that the ground state phase diagram of such 2D atom arrays can host a plethora of different phases, depending on the atom arrangement. These include various conventionally ordered phases that break lattice symmetries, as well as topologically ordered phases such as spin liquids, which can not be characterized by a local order parameters. I will discuss how these states can be prepared and probed, and highlight potential future applications of this platform. 

Bio: 

Hannes Pichler is a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck and Junior-Research Group Leader at IQOQI Innsbruck. Prior to his appointment at Innsbruck, he was at Harvard University (ITAMP Postdoctoral Fellow) and at the California Institute of Technology (Gordon and Betty Moore Postdoctoral Fellow). His research focussed on theoretical quantum optics, in the context of quantum many-body physics and quantum information processing science.