Related papers: Phase diagram and self-organising dynamics in a st…
We demonstrate a non-equilibrium phase transition in a dilute thermal atomic gas. The phase transition, between states of low and high Rydberg occupancy, is induced by resonant dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg atoms. The gas can…
The identification of tipping points is essential for prediction of collapses or other sudden changes in complex systems. Applications include studies of ecology, thermodynamics, climatology, and epidemiology. However, detecting early signs…
We report on the observation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) with intrinsic phase transitions in a three-level ladder system within rubidium atomic vapor. The observed abrupt transitions between low and high Rydberg…
We study the quantum nonequilibrium dynamics of ultracold three-level atoms trapped in an optical lattice, which are excited to their Rydberg states via a two-photon excitation with nonnegligible spontaneous emission. Rich quantum phases…
We investigate the dynamics of a generic interacting many-body system under conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). This problem is of current relevance due to its connection to non-linear optical media realized by…
Understanding and probing phase transitions in non-equilibrium systems is an ongoing challenge in physics. A particular instance are phase transitions that occur between a non-fluctuating absorbing phase, e.g., an extinct population, and…
The interactions between Rydberg atoms and microwave fields provide a valuable framework for studying the complex dynamics out of equilibrium, exotic phases, and critical phenomena in many-body physics. This unique interplay allows us to…
Floquet systems are periodically driven systems. In this framework, the system Hamiltonian and associated spectra of interest are modified, giving rise to new quantum phases of matter and nonequilibrium dynamics without static counterparts.…
It is increasingly important to understand the spatial dynamics of epidemics. While there are numerous mathematical models of epidemics, there is a scarcity of physical systems with sufficiently well-controlled parameters to allow…
The emergence of global order in complex systems with locally interacting components is most striking at criticality, where small changes in control parameters result in a sudden global re-organization. We introduce a measure of…
We study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of dissipative gases of atoms excited to two or more high-lying Rydberg states. This situation bears interesting similarities to classical binary (in general $p$-ary) mixtures of particles. The…
Recent breakthroughs in the experimental manipulation of strongly interacting atomic Rydberg gases in lattice potentials have opened a new avenue for the study of many-body phenomena. Considerable efforts are currently being undertaken to…
Scaling ideas and renormalization group approaches proved crucial for a deep understanding and classification of critical phenomena in thermal equilibrium. Over the past decades, these powerful conceptual and mathematical tools were…
We construct the finite-temperature dynamical phase diagram of the fully connected transverse-field Ising model from the vantage point of two disparate concepts of dynamical criticality. An analytical derivation of the classical dynamics…
Active matter generates order or patterns through nonequilibrium dynamics. An open research challenge is to determine how efficiently a nonequilibrium self-organising system can convert consumed energy into macroscopic order. We study an…
It is challenging to probe ergodicity breaking trends of a quantum many-body system when dissipation inevitably damages quantum coherence originated from coherent coupling and dispersive two-body interactions. Rydberg atoms provide a test…
We use a density matrix formalism to study the equilibrium phases and non-equilibrium dynamics of a system of dissipative Rydberg atoms in an optical lattice within mean-field theory. We provide equations for the fixed points of the density…
Prethermalization occurs as an important phase in the dynamics of many-body systems when strong coupling drives a quasi-equilibrium in a subspace separated from the thermodynamic equilibrium by the restriction of a gap in energy or other…
While Rydberg-Rydberg interactions are essential for quantum nonlinear optics and quantum information processing, their role in microwave and radio-frequency sensing remains poorly understood. Here we experimentally investigate Rydberg…
We overview the concept of dynamical phase transitions in isolated quantum systems quenched out of equilibrium. We focus on non-equilibrium transitions characterized by an order parameter, which features qualitatively distinct temporal…