Long-range interacting many-body systems with alkaline-earth-metal atoms.

Abstract

Alkaline-earth-metal atoms can exhibit long-range dipolar interactions, which are generated via the coherent exchange of photons on the (3)P(0) - (3)D(1) transition of the triplet manifold. In the case of bosonic strontium, which we discuss here, this transition has a wavelength of 2.6 μm and a dipole moment of 4.03 D, and there exists a magic wavelength permitting the creation of optical lattices that are identical for the states (3)P(0) and (3)D(1). This interaction enables the realization and study of mixtures of hard-core lattice bosons featuring long-range hopping, with tunable disorder and anisotropy. We derive the many-body master equation, investigate the dynamics of excitation transport, and analyze spectroscopic signatures stemming from coherent long-range interactions and collective dissipation. Our results show that lattice gases of alkaline-earth-metal atoms permit the creation of long-lived collective atomic states and constitute a simple and versatile platform for the exploration of many-body systems with long-range interactions. As such, they represent an alternative to current related efforts employing Rydberg gases, atoms with large magnetic moment, or polar molecules.