Quantum Magnetism with Polar Molecules in a 3D Optical Lattice

Abstract

With chemical reactions under control and the molecular gas stabilized in the 3D optical lattice, we have recently begun to study a conservative manifestation of the dipole–dipole interaction, where the molecules never come in contact with each other. This is a new experimental regime where the internal degrees of freedom (spins) of molecules interact strongly, but the motional degrees of freedom are largely decoupled from the system dynamics. Certainly this is not the case for cold, ground-state alkali atoms in a lattice whose interactions are primarily short-range, although recently experiments with highly magnetic atoms and Rydberg atoms have demonstrated similar long-range interactions (Baier et al., Science 352(6282):201–205, 2016; Barredo et al., Science 354(6315):1021–1023, 2016).