title: Rydberg rings.
abstract: Atoms in highly excited Rydberg states exhibit remarkable properties such as large polarizability and strong interactions. This makes them interesting for a manifold of applications ranging from electric field sensors to carriers and mediators of quantum information and renders them into a powerful tool for studying quantum phenomena in strongly interacting many-particle systems. In this article we illuminate perspectives for the study of the relaxation and thermalization dynamics of closed many-body quantum systems using alkali atoms that are held in a ring lattice and excited to Rydberg states. Moreover, we show that Rydberg atoms confined to lattices offer exciting possibilities for the creation of entangled many-body quantum states which can serve as a resource for the generation of non-classical light.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olmos
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lesanovsky