Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 12: Ultra-cold plasmas and Rydberg systems I (with Q)

A 12.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 11:15–11:30, C/kHS

Signatures of directed percolation in strongly-dephased Rydberg atoms — •Matteo Marcuzzi, Emanuele Levi, Beatriz Olmos, Weibin Li, Juan Garrahan, and Igor Lesanovsky — School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

The directed percolation universality class possibly represents the simplest instance of a genuine non-equilibrium phase transition from an absorbing state to a fluctuating active phase and is typically thought to be as fundamental as the Ising universality class is for equilibrium. However, until rather recently, no clear evidence of this transition had been found in experiments. This presentation aims to show that signatures of directed percolation can be observed in a strongly interacting ensemble of Rydberg atoms subject to intense dephasing noise. Thanks to the high degree of tunability offered by cold atomic techniques, this approach should allow for the experimental probing of directed percolation in all physical dimensions.