Photon-mediated correlated hopping in a synthetic ladder

We propose a different direction in quantum simulation that uses multilevel atoms in an optical cavity as a toolbox to engineer different types of bosonic models featuring correlated hopping processes in a synthetic ladder spanned by atomic ground states. The underlying mechanisms responsible for correlated hopping are collective cavity-mediated interactions that dress a manifold of excited levels in the far-detuned limit. By weakly coupling the ground-state levels to these dressed states using two laser drives with appropriate detunings, one can engineer correlated hopping processes while suppressing undesired single-particle and collective shifts of the ground-state levels. We discuss the rich many-body dynamics that can be realized in the synthetic ladder including pair production processes, chiral transport, and light-cone correlation spreading. The latter illustrates that an effective notion of locality can be engineered in a system with fully collective interactions.

Automated summary

We propose the use of multilevel atoms in an optical cavity to engineer different types of bosonic models with correlated hopping processes. The correlated hopping is achieved through collective cavity-mediated interactions in the far-detuned limit. By weakly coupling ground-state levels to these dressed states, one can suppress undesired shifts and realize correlated hopping processes. The synthetic ladder system can exhibit rich many-body dynamics including pair production, chiral transport, and light-cone correlation spreading, demonstrating the engineered notion of locality.