Implementing quantum electrodynamics with ultracold atomic systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental setup using ultracold sodium and lithium atoms to simulate one-dimensional quantum electrodynamics, enabling the study of fundamental QED phenomena with current technology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to realize lattice QED in ultracold atomic systems, bridging atomic physics and quantum field theory.

Findings

Parameters for simulating QED processes are identified.

Benchmark calculations confirm the feasibility of the setup.

The setup can potentially explore phenomena beyond classical computational reach.

Abstract

We discuss the experimental engineering of model systems for the description of QED in one spatial dimension via a mixture of bosonic $^{23}$Na and fermionic $^6$Li atoms. The local gauge symmetry is realized in an optical superlattice, using heteronuclear boson-fermion spin-changing interactions which preserve the total spin in every local collision. We consider a large number of bosons residing in the coherent state of a Bose-Einstein condensate on each link between the fermion lattice sites, such that the behavior of lattice QED in the continuum limit can be recovered. The discussion about the range of possible experimental parameters builds, in particular, upon experiences with related setups of fermions interacting with coherent samples of bosonic atoms. We determine the atomic system's parameters required for the description of fundamental QED processes, such as Schwinger pair production and string breaking. This is achieved by benchmark calculations of the atomic system and of QED itself using functional integral techniques. Our results demonstrate that the dynamics of one-dimensional QED may be realized with ultracold atoms using state-of-the-art experimental resources. The experimental setup proposed may provide a unique access to longstanding open questions for which classical computational methods are no longer applicable.