Roton-Induced Trapping in Strongly Correlated Rydberg Gases

Abstract

Atoms excited into high-lying Rydberg states and under strong dipole-dipole interactions exhibit phenomena associated with highly correlated and complex systems. We perform first principles numerical simulations on the dynamics of such systems. The emergence of a roton minimum in the excitation spectrum, as expected in strongly correlated gases and accurately described by Feynman's theory of liquid helium, is shown to significantly inhibit particle transport, with a strong suppression of the diffusion coefficient, due to the emerging spatial order. We also demonstrate how the ability to temporally tune the interaction strength among Rydberg atoms can be used in order to overcome the effects of disorder induced heating, allowing the study of unprecedented highly coupled regimes.