2020/05/31 by Marvin Holten, Luca Bayha, Keerthan Subramanian +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.quant-gas #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.020401
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 020401 (2021) · 10 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2020/12/16 · arxiv updated 2021/01/20
The Pauli exclusion principle is a fundamental law underpinning the structure of matter. Due to their anti-symmetric wave function, no two fermions can occupy the same quantum state. Here, we report on the direct observation of the Pauli principle in a continuous system of up to six particles in the ground state of a two-dimensional harmonic oscillator. To this end, we sample the full many-body wavefunction by applying a single atom resolved imaging scheme in momentum space. We find so-called Pauli crystals as a manifestation of higher order correlations. In contrast to true crystalline phases, these unique high-order density correlations emerge even without any interactions present. Our work lays the foundation for future studies of correlations in strongly interacting systems of many fermions.