Submission Date

5-3-2021

Document Type

Paper

Department

Physics & Astronomy

Adviser

Thomas Carroll

Committee Member

Kassandra Martin-Wells

Committee Member

Johannes Karreth

Department Chair

Lew Riley

Project Description

In thermodynamics, interacting systems are expected to achieve equilibrium with one another over the course of time. However, there are exceptions to this rule. When systems localize, or fail to reach equilibrium, information about the initial state of the system is preserved and locally observable after long periods of time. Many-body localization focuses on systems of interacting particles that fail to thermalize. We have developed a simulation that models the behavior of a many-body quantum system. The simulation is inspired by experiments conducted by Liu, et al., in their recent publication “Time Dependence of Few Body Forster Interactions Among Ultracold Rydberg Atoms.” In these experiments, a sample of atoms are trapped within a magneto-optical trap and excited to a Rydberg state. The interactions between the atoms are then observed over the course of time. Similarly, we simulate the time evolution of Rydberg atom samples trapped within various spatial geometries. The resulting data is analyzed in order to determine the degree of thermalization within the various systems.

Download

Share

COinS