title: Strongly correlated gases of Rydberg-dressed atoms: quantum and classical dynamics.
abstract: We discuss techniques to generate long-range interactions in a gas of ground state alkali atoms, by weakly admixing excited Rydberg states with laser light. This provides a tool to engineer strongly correlated phases with reduced decoherence from inelastic collisions and spontaneous emission. As an illustration, we discuss the quantum phases of dressed atoms with dipole-dipole interactions confined in a harmonic potential, as relevant to experiments. We show that residual spontaneous emission from the Rydberg state acts as a heating mechanism, leading to a quantum-classical crossover.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pupillo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Micheli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boninsegni
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lesanovsky
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zoller