Quantum gas microscopy maps the phase diagram of three-flavor Hubbard systems

Jirayu Mongkolkiattichai of the University of Virginia and colleagues have extended quantum gas microscopy to study three-flavor Fermi lattice gases, achieving site- and flavor-resolved detection to map the phase diagram of the three-flavor Hubbard model. The work reveals signatures of flavor-selective localization and selective pairing at temperatures down to the tunneling energy scale, offering new insight into strongly correlated many-body systems. These three-component fermionic systems mirror the three flavors found in quantum chromodynamics, potentially paving the way to study phenomena like color superfluidity with increased phase space density and the observation of a novel pair Mott phase. The team’s experiments use a quantum gas microscope capable of distinguishing between three internal states, or “flavors,” of fermionic atoms trapped in a lattice of light. This precise control and measurement are important for exploring…