English

Measuring pair correlations in Bose and Fermi gases via atom-resolved microscopy

Quantum Gases 2025-11-25 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We demonstrate atom-resolved detection of itinerant bosonic 23^{23}Na and fermionic 6^6Li quantum gases, enabling the direct in situ measurement of interparticle correlations. In contrast to prior work on lattice-trapped gases, here we realize microscopy of quantum gases in the continuum. We reveal Bose-Einstein condensation with single-atom resolution, measure the enhancement of two-particle g(2)g^{(2)} correlations of thermal bosons, and observe the suppression of g(2)g^{(2)} for fermions; the Fermi or exchange hole. For strongly interacting Fermi gases confined to two dimensions, we directly observe non-local fermion pairs in the BEC-BCS crossover. We obtain the pairing gap, the pair size, and the short-range contact directly from the pair correlations. In situ thermometry is enabled via the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Our technique opens the door to the atom-resolved study of strongly correlated quantum gases of bosons, fermions, and their mixtures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.08780,
  title  = {Measuring pair correlations in Bose and Fermi gases via atom-resolved microscopy},
  author = {Ruixiao Yao and Sungjae Chi and Mingxuan Wang and Richard J. Fletcher and Martin Zwierlein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.08780},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

9 pages, 7 figures