Kaden Hazzard
Rice University
A synthetic dimension is a degree of freedom where motion in space is mimicked by motion through other states, such as hyperfine states of atoms or rotations of molecules. These states act as lattice sites in extra spatial dimensions, and can be used alone or in combination with any real spatial dimensions. The superb control of internal degrees of freedom opens a vast new frontier, both for simulating phenomena in condensed matter (such as topological band structures or fracton matter) and for studying phenomena that don’t occur elsewhere in nature, such as fluctuating quantum strings, membranes, and even 3-branes that fluctuate in 4D.
In this talk I will discuss our theoretical understanding of synthetic dimensions, and the rapid experimental progress exploring synthetic dimensions made with three types of ultracold matter: Rydberg atoms, molecules, and momentum-space lattices.