Far from equilibrium quantum magnetism with ultracold polar molecules

TL;DR

This paper proposes a non-equilibrium protocol using ultracold polar molecules in optical lattices to verify quantum magnetism models, prepare correlated states, and explore complex many-body physics, even below unit filling.

Contribution

It introduces a practical non-equilibrium method for quantum emulation with ultracold molecules, enabling benchmarking and exploration of many-body phenomena.

Findings

Protocol can verify quantum magnetism models.

Method allows preparation of correlated states.

Enables exploration of inaccessible many-body physics.

Abstract

Recent theory has indicated how to emulate tunable models of quantum magnetism with ultracold polar molecules. Here we show that present molecule optical lattice experiments can accomplish three crucial goals for quantum emulation, despite currently being well below unit filling and not quantum degenerate. The first is to verify and benchmark the models proposed to describe these systems. The second is to prepare correlated and possibly useful states in well-understood regimes. The third is to explore many-body physics inaccessible to existing theoretical techniques. Our proposal relies on a non-equilibrium protocol that can be viewed either as Ramsey spectroscopy or an interaction quench. It uses only routine experimental tools available in any ultracold molecule experiment.