title: Simulating compact quantum electrodynamics with ultracold atoms: probing confinement and nonperturbative effects.
abstract: Recently, there has been much interest in simulating quantum field theory effects of matter and gauge fields. In a recent work, a method for simulating compact quantum electrodynamics (CQED) using Bose-Einstein condensates has been suggested. We suggest an alternative approach, which relies on single atoms in an optical lattice, carrying 2l + 1 internal levels, which converges rapidly to CQED as l increases. That enables the simulation of CQED in 2 + 1 dimensions in both the weak and the strong coupling regimes, hence, allowing us to probe confinement as well as other nonperturbative effects of the theory. We provide an explicit construction for the case l = 1 which is sufficient for simulating the effect of confinement between two external static charges.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Erez
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zohar
authors.forename: J Ignacio
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cirac
authors.forename: Benni
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reznik