Realization of an excited, strongly correlated quantum gas phase.
Ultracold atomic physics offers myriad possibilities to study strongly correlated many-body systems in lower dimensions. Typically, only ground-state phases are accessible. Using a tunable quantum gas of bosonic cesium atoms, we realized and controlled in one-dimensional geometry a highly excited quantum phase that is stabilized in the presence of attractive interactions by maintaining and strengthening quantum correlations across a confinement-induced resonance. We diagnosed the crossover from repulsive to attractive interactions in terms of the stiffness and energy of the system. Our results open up the experimental study of metastable, excited, many-body phases with strong correlations and their dynamical properties.
Haller
Elmar
E
Institut für Experimentalphysik und Zentrum für Quantenphysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Gustavsson
Mattias
M
Mark
Manfred J
MJ
Danzl
Johann G
JG
Hart
Russell
R
Pupillo
Guido
G
Nägerl
Hanns-Christoph
HC