Ultracold Polar Molecules: New Phases of Matter for Quantum Information and Quantum Control

Abstract

Abstract : In this first funding period we have obtained several key results towards the control of cold collisions between molecules, and the prediction and understanding of exotic many-body phases of ultracold molecules trapped in optical lattices. Highlights are: (a) The computation of the elastic and reactive rates of quasi-two-dimensional and quasi one-dimensional collisions of highly reactive ultracold molecules (in collaboration with the UMd MURI PI Paul Julienne). Some of these predictions have been now verified experimentally by the JILA group. (b) The determination of the phase diagram of ultracold polar molecules trapped in optical lattices in two and one dimensions, showing that the groundstate of the system can support exotic phases such as supersolid phases and Devil-like's staircases of lattice solids. (c) The study of the physics of dipolar gases as can be realized in novel setups, such as quantum gases of laser-dressed atoms. These works have already resulted in several high-profile publications in this first funding period. Future work will focus on the analysis of the quantum phases of bosonic and fermionic polar molecules in multi-layer structured, as are being realized in experiments with molecules trapped in several layers of an optical lattice. We expect that several interesting pairing mechanisms will arise in these systems, possibly leading to many-body phases of interest. In addition, we will work towards the realization of new architectures for quantum computing with polar molecules which make specific use of long-range interactions in these systems.