This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical progress concerning many-body phenomena in dilute, ultracold gases. It focuses on effects beyond standard weak-coupling descriptions, such as the Mott-Hubbard transition in optical lattices, strongly interacting gases in one and two dimensions, or lowest-Landau-level physics in quasi-two-dimensional gases in fast rotation. Strong correlations in fermionic gases are discussed in optical lattices or near-Feshbach resonances in the BCS-BEC crossover.

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Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases

Topological quantum computation has emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles known as non-Abelian anyons, meaning that they obey non-Abelian braiding statistics. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate operations that are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by braiding quasiparticles and then measuring the multiquasiparticle states. The fault tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the nonlocal encoding of the quasiparticle states, which makes them immune to errors caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most prominently the $\ensuremath{\nu}=5∕2$ state, although several other prospective candidates have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultracold atoms in optical lattices and thin-film superconductors. In this review article, current research in this field is described, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological quantum computer. Both the mathematical underpinnings of topological quantum computation and the physics of the subject are addressed, using the $\ensuremath{\nu}=5∕2$ fractional quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has been observed in a dilute gas of sodium atoms. A Bose-Einstein condensate consists of a macroscopic population of the ground state of the system, and is a coherent state of matter. In an ideal gas, this phase transition is purely quantum-statistical. The study of BEC in weakly interacting systems which can be controlled and observed with precision holds the promise of revealing new macroscopic quantum phenomena that can be understood from first principles.

Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas of sodium atoms

Topological quantum computation has recently emerged as one of the most exciting approaches to constructing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. The proposal relies on the existence of topological states of matter whose quasiparticle excitations are neither bosons nor fermions, but are particles known as {it Non-Abelian anyons}, meaning that they obey {it non-Abelian braiding statistics}. Quantum information is stored in states with multiple quasiparticles, which have a topological degeneracy. The unitary gate operations which are necessary for quantum computation are carried out by braiding quasiparticles, and then measuring the multi-quasiparticle states. The fault-tolerance of a topological quantum computer arises from the non-local encoding of the states of the quasiparticles, which makes them immune to errors caused by local perturbations. To date, the only such topological states thought to have been found in nature are fractional quantum Hall states, most prominently the nu=5/2 state, although several other prospective candidates have been proposed in systems as disparate as ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices and thin film superconductors. In this review article, we describe current research in this field, focusing on the general theoretical concepts of non-Abelian statistics as it relates to topological quantum computation, on understanding non-Abelian quantum Hall states, on proposed experiments to detect non-Abelian anyons, and on proposed architectures for a topological quantum computer. We address both the mathematical underpinnings of topological quantum computation and the physics of the subject using the nu=5/2 fractional quantum Hall state as the archetype of a non-Abelian topological state enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Simulating quantum mechanics is known to be a difficult computational problem, especially when dealing with large systems However, this difficulty may be overcome by using some controllable quantum system to study another less controllable or accessible quantum system, ie, quantum simulation Quantum simulation promises to have applications in the study of many problems in, eg, condensed-matter physics, high-energy physics, atomic physics, quantum chemistry and cosmology Quantum simulation could be implemented using quantum computers, but also with simpler, analog devices that would require less control, and therefore, would be easier to construct A number of quantum systems such as neutral atoms, ions, polar molecules, electrons in semiconductors, superconducting circuits, nuclear spins and photons have been proposed as quantum simulators This review outlines the main theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum simulation and emphasizes some of the challenges and promises of this fast-growing field

Quantum Simulation

Strongly correlated quantum systems are among the most intriguing and fundamental systems in physics. One such example is the Tonks-Girardeau gas, proposed about 40 years ago, but until now lacking experimental realization; in such a gas, the repulsive interactions between bosonic particles confined to one dimension dominate the physics of the system. In order to minimize their mutual repulsion, the bosons are prevented from occupying the same position in space. This mimics the Pauli exclusion principle for fermions, causing the bosonic particles to exhibit fermionic properties. However, such bosons do not exhibit completely ideal fermionic (or bosonic) quantum behaviour; for example, this is reflected in their characteristic momentum distribution. Here we report the preparation of a Tonks-Girardeau gas of ultracold rubidium atoms held in a two-dimensional optical lattice formed by two orthogonal standing waves. The addition of a third, shallower lattice potential along the long axis of the quantum gases allows us to enter the Tonks-Girardeau regime by increasing the atoms' effective mass and thereby enhancing the role of interactions. We make a theoretical prediction of the momentum distribution based on an approach in which trapped bosons acquire fermionic properties, finding that it agrees closely with the measured distribution.

Tonks–Girardeau gas of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

The interplay of thermodynamics and quantum correlations can give rise to counterintuitive phenomena in many-body systems. We report on an isentropic effect in a spin mixture of attractively interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. As we adiabatically increase the attraction between the atoms, we observe that the gas expands instead of contracting. This unexpected behavior demonstrates the crucial role of the lattice potential in the thermodynamics of the fermionic Hubbard model.

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Anomalous Expansion of Attractively Interacting Fermionic Atoms in an Optical Lattice

We present an algorithm that exploits quantum parallelism to simulate randomness in a quantum system. In our scheme, all possible realizations of the random parameters are encoded quantum mechanically in a superposition state of an auxiliary system. We show how our algorithm allows for the efficient simulation of dynamics of quantum random spin chains with known numerical methods. We propose an experimental realization based on atoms in optical lattices in which disorder could be simulated in parallel and in a controlled way through the interaction with another atomic species.

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Exploiting Quantum Parallelism to Simulate Quantum Random Many-Body Systems

We propose a realistic scheme to create motionally entangled states of a few bosonic atoms. It can experimentally be realized with a gas of ultracold bosonic atoms trapped in a deep optical lattice potential. By simultaneously deforming and rotating the trapping potential on each lattice site it is feasible to adiabatically create a variety of entangled states on each lattice well. We fully address the case of $N=2$ and 4 atoms per well and identify a sequence of fractional quantum Hall states: the Pfaffian state, the $1∕2$-Laughlin quasiparticle, and the $1∕2$-Laughlin state. Exact knowledge of the spectrum has allowed us to design adiabatic paths to these states, with all times and parameters well within the reach of current experimental setups. We further discuss the detection of these states by measuring different properties as their density profile, angular momentum, or correlation functions.

B. Paredes

Papers

Tonks–Girardeau gas of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice

Anomalous Expansion of Attractively Interacting Fermionic Atoms in an Optical Lattice

Exploiting Quantum Parallelism to Simulate Quantum Random Many-Body Systems

Adiabatic path to fractional quantum Hall states of a few bosonic atoms

Fractional quantum Hall regime of a gas of ultracold atoms