Probing many-body states of ultra-cold atoms via noise correlations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using noise correlations in expanding ultra-cold atom gases to detect complex many-body states, such as superfluidity and broken symmetries, with analysis of experimental feasibility.

Contribution

It presents a novel technique for probing many-body states of ultra-cold atoms through noise correlation analysis of expanding gas clouds.

Findings

Noise correlations can detect superfluidity in fermionic gases.

Broken spin symmetries in Mott-states can be revealed.

The method's feasibility is supported by signal-to-noise analysis.

Abstract

We propose to utilize density-density correlations in the image of an expanding gas cloud to probe complex many body states of trapped ultra-cold atoms. In particular we show how this technique can be used to detect superfluidity of fermionic gases and reveal broken spin symmetries in Mott-states of atoms in optical lattices. The feasibility of the method is investigated by analysis of the relevant signal to noise ratio including experimental imperfections.