Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Cold atoms in optical lattices are a versatile and highly controllable platform for quantum simulation, capable of realizing a broad family of Hubbard models, and allowing site-resolved readout via quantum gas microscopes. In principle, arbitrary site-dependent potentials can also be implemented; however, since lattice spacings are typically below the diffraction limit, precisely applying and calibrating these potentials remains challenging. Here, we propose a simple and efficient experimental protocol that can be used to measure any potential with high precision. The key ingredient in our protocol is the ability in some atomic species to turn off interactions using a Feshbach resonance, which makes the evolution easy to compute. Given this, we demonstrate that collecting snapshots from the time evolution of a known, easily prepared initial state is sufficient to accurately estimate the potential. Our protocol is robust to state preparation errors and uncertainty in the hopping rate. This paves the way toward precision quantum simulation with arbitrary potentials.
Source: Physical Review A
DOI: 10.1103/296w-f7z6
Authors: Bhavik Kumar, Daniel Malz
Institution: University of Copenhagen
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Novo Nordisk Fonden
Awards: G4105022999, G5319501902
OpenAlex ID: W7101761422