Microscopy of bosonic charge carriers in staggered magnetic fields

Understand

The interplay of spin and charge degrees of freedom is believed to underlie various unresolved phenomena in strongly correlated systems.

• Quantum simulators based on neutral atoms provide an excellent testbed for investigating such phenomena and resolving their microscopic origins.
• Up to now, the majority of experimental and theoretical studies has focused on systems with fermionic exchange statistics.
• Here we expand the existing cold atom toolbox through the use of negative temperature states, enabling us to realize an antiferromagnetic, bosonic $t-J$ model in two spatial dimensions, subject to a strong staggered magnetic field in a quantum gas microscope.