Fermionic collective excitations in a lattice gas of Rydberg atoms

TL;DR

This paper explores how a laser-driven Rydberg atom lattice can host collective fermionic excitations, enabling the study of fermions with disorder effects without atomic motion, advancing quantum many-body state engineering.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of collective fermionic states in a Rydberg lattice under strong laser driving, providing a new platform for studying fermions with disorder.

Findings

Identification of fermionic excitations in Rydberg lattices

Analysis of disorder effects on fermionic states

Proposal for creating complex many-particle states

Abstract

We investigate the many-body quantum states of a laser-driven gas of Rydberg atoms confined to a large spacing ring lattice. If the laser driving is much stronger than the van-der-Waals interaction among the Rydberg sates, these many-body states are collective fermionic excitations. The first excited state is a spin-wave that extends over the entire lattice. We demonstrate that our system permits to study fermions in the presence of disorder although no external atomic motion takes place. We analyze how this disorder influences the excitation properties of the fermionic states. Our work shows a route towards the creation of complex many-particle states with atoms in lattices.