Master Thesis: Many-Body Physics of Strongly Interacting Rydberg Atoms
Table of Contents
Overview #
Many-Body Physics of Strongly Interacting Rydberg Atoms Universita degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Fisica, 2015. Advisor: Prof. Oliver Morsch.
This thesis explores the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of strongly interacting Rydberg atom ensembles, where long-range van der Waals interactions lead to collective phenomena such as the Rydberg blockade and facilitated excitation.
Key Topics #
- Rydberg blockade: When one atom is excited to a Rydberg state, the strong C_6/r^6 van der Waals interaction shifts neighboring atoms out of resonance, preventing their excitation within a blockade radius.
- Facilitation dynamics: With a finite detuning, excitation is suppressed for isolated atoms but enhanced at a specific facilitation shell where the vdW shift compensates the detuning, creating spatially correlated excitation avalanches.
- Rate equations and KMC: The excitation dynamics are modeled via rate equations with Lorentzian line profiles, solved using kinetic Monte Carlo (Gillespie algorithm) methods.
- Mechanical dynamics: Excited atoms experience vdW repulsion and move in space, coupling the internal (excitation) and external (motional) degrees of freedom.
The Simulation #
The Rydberg atom simulation on the Projects page is directly inspired by this thesis and the johannes C++ library developed for it. It implements the same physics: rate-equation excitation with facilitation, van der Waals forces, and velocity Verlet integration for Rb-87 atoms in the 70s Rydberg state.