Dipolar Interacting Quantum Matter in Synthetic Dimensions

Synthetic dimension platforms in ultracold atoms and molecules offer unique ways of exploring quantum matter. These highly tunable systems can mimic solid-state phenomena, as well as realize novel Hamiltonians beyond usual solid-state materials or optical lattices.

In this talk, I will present the many-body physics of atoms and molecules combining internal synthetic lattices with real-space microtrap arrays. In this setup, the atoms/molecules interact via dipole-dipole angular-momentum-exchange interactions, and I focus on the case of uniform synthetic tunneling rates. Through a combination of mean-field theory and quantum Monte Carlo results, I will show that the interplay between the dipole-dipole interaction and synthetic tunneling gives rise to several different phases, symmetry-breaking and otherwise.

One particularly interesting phase has atoms localized in the synthetic dimension, forming a quantum string or membrane that fluctuates in a higher dimensional space. We find tri-critical points on the thermal phase boundaries between this string phase and a disordered gas when the finite size of the synthetic dimension is six sites or larger.

I will conclude with some open questions, experimental challenges and motivate other quantum systems that can be engineered with ultracold atomic or molecular synthetic dimension platforms that are hard to realize elsewhere.