TY - THES
AU - Michael Perlin
AB - Ultracold atomic systems are exquisite platforms for studying many-body physics and developing quantum technologies. Alkaline-earth(-like) atoms (AEA) in particular offer unique capabilities for pushing the state-of-the-art in quantum simulation and sensing capabilities. These atoms have an ultranarrow electronic transition that is used as the basis for the world’s best atomic clocks. Moreover, AEAs can have a rich internal structure owing to nuclear spin degrees of freedom that are largely untapped as a scientific, metrological, and computational resource. In this thesis, we explore some of the possibilities and prospects for exploring many-body quantum phenomena and advancing sensing capabilities with ultracold AEAs.

We begin on the simulation end with a deep dive into the emergence of multi-body interactions between ultracold AEAs. We then present a proposal to harness collisional interactions and inhomogeneities in an AEA-based clock for the preparation of many-body entangled states known as spin-squeezed states, which allow for a quantum enhancement to clock sensitivity. In order to analyze this proposal’s prospects and limitations, we develop a numerical technique for simulating collective quantum spin systems, which may find external applications for studying operator growth and quantum chaos. Borrowing ideas from the proposal to improve AEA-based clocks, we examine the possibility of spin squeezing using power-law interactions that can be found in a variety of atomic, molecular, and optical systems. Combining the spirit of our investigation into exotic interactions with the roadmap of our proposal to improve AEA-based clocks, we then propose a way to engineer a multilevel spin model with infinite-range interactions in the nuclear spin degrees of freedom of AEAs. We study the dynamical phases of this system, characterized by order parameters with a simple physical interpretation, and propose ways to measure these order parameters using standard techniques.
BT - Department of Physics
CY - Boulder
DA - 2021-09
N2 - Ultracold atomic systems are exquisite platforms for studying many-body physics and developing quantum technologies. Alkaline-earth(-like) atoms (AEA) in particular offer unique capabilities for pushing the state-of-the-art in quantum simulation and sensing capabilities. These atoms have an ultranarrow electronic transition that is used as the basis for the world’s best atomic clocks. Moreover, AEAs can have a rich internal structure owing to nuclear spin degrees of freedom that are largely untapped as a scientific, metrological, and computational resource. In this thesis, we explore some of the possibilities and prospects for exploring many-body quantum phenomena and advancing sensing capabilities with ultracold AEAs.

We begin on the simulation end with a deep dive into the emergence of multi-body interactions between ultracold AEAs. We then present a proposal to harness collisional interactions and inhomogeneities in an AEA-based clock for the preparation of many-body entangled states known as spin-squeezed states, which allow for a quantum enhancement to clock sensitivity. In order to analyze this proposal’s prospects and limitations, we develop a numerical technique for simulating collective quantum spin systems, which may find external applications for studying operator growth and quantum chaos. Borrowing ideas from the proposal to improve AEA-based clocks, we examine the possibility of spin squeezing using power-law interactions that can be found in a variety of atomic, molecular, and optical systems. Combining the spirit of our investigation into exotic interactions with the roadmap of our proposal to improve AEA-based clocks, we then propose a way to engineer a multilevel spin model with infinite-range interactions in the nuclear spin degrees of freedom of AEAs. We study the dynamical phases of this system, characterized by order parameters with a simple physical interpretation, and propose ways to measure these order parameters using standard techniques.
PB - University of Colorado Boulder
PP - Boulder
PY - 2021
EP - 326
T2 - Department of Physics
TI - Quantum simulation and metrology with multilevel fermions in an optical lattice
VL - Ph.D.
ER -