[Aspuru-Guzik group list] ITAMP topical lunch discussion: FRIDAY January 10 @ 12:00

ITAMP Topical Lunch Discussion NOTE: All lunch discussions will be held on Friday from now on Date: FRIDAY, January 10 Time: 12:00-1:30 Pizza will be served. Location: B-106 @ Center for Astrophysics (60 Garden Street) Directions: after entering the lobby of the CfA, turn right to enter the hallway of the B building. In the hallway, turn right again, and B-106 is there. Speaker: Ulf Bissbort (MIT) Title: Emulating Solid-State Physics with a Hybrid System of Ultracold Ions and Atoms Abstract: A hybrid system composed of a crystal of trapped ions coupled to a cloud of ultracold fermions is proposed and discussed as an analog quantum simulator. The ions form a periodic lattice and induce a band structure in the atoms. This system combines the advantages of high fidelity operations and detection offered by trapped ion systems with ultracold atomic systems. It also features close analogies to natural solid-state systems, as the atomic degrees of freedom couple to phonons of the ion lattice, thereby emulating a solid-state system. Starting from the microscopic many-body Hamiltonian,the low energy Hamiltonian, including the atomic band structure is derived. The atom-phonon coupling is found to be highly tunable, allowing for the realization of strongly correlated atom-phonon systems. Possible experimental implementations such as a Peierls-like transition into a period-doubled dimerized state are presented.