A quantum many-body spin system in an optical lattice clock

Understand

Strongly interacting quantum many-body systems are fundamentally compelling and ubiquitous in science.

• However, their complexity generally prevents exact solutions of their dynamics.
• Precisely engineered ultracold atomic gases are emerging as a powerful tool to unravel these challenging physical problems.
• Here we present a new laboratory for the study of many-body effects: strongly interacting two-level systems formed by the clock states in ${}^{87}$Sr, which are used to realize a neutral atom optical clock that performs at the highest level of optical-atomic coherence and with precision near the limit set by quantum fluctuations.