Physics – Condensed Matter – Quantum Gases
Scientific paper
2011-11-03
Nature 481, 484--487 (2012)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Quantum Gases
7 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables
Scientific paper
10.1038/nature10748
How fast can correlations spread in a quantum many-body system? Based on the seminal work by Lieb and Robinson, it has recently been shown that several interacting many-body systems exhibit an effective light cone that bounds the propagation speed of correlations. The existence of such a "speed of light" has profound implications for condensed matter physics and quantum information, but has never been observed experimentally. Here we report on the time-resolved detection of propagating correlations in an interacting quantum many-body system. By quenching a one-dimensional quantum gas in an optical lattice, we reveal how quasiparticle pairs transport correlations with a finite velocity across the system, resulting in an effective light cone for the quantum dynamics. Our results open important perspectives for understanding relaxation of closed quantum systems far from equilibrium as well as for engineering efficient quantum channels necessary for fast quantum computations.
Barmettler Peter
Bloch Immanuel
Cheneau Marc
Endres Manuel
Fukuhara Takeshi
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