Confining ultracold gases in cavities creates a paradigm of quantum trapping potentials. We show that this allows us to bridge models with global collective and short-range interactions as novel quantum phases possess properties of both. Some phases appear solely due to quantum light-matter correlations. Because of a global, but spatially structured, interaction, the competition between quantum matter and light waves leads to multimode structures even in single-mode cavities, including delocalized dimers of matter-field coherences (bonds), beyond density orders as supersolids and density waves.

Original languageEnglish
Article number243604
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume115
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Dec 2015

    Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

ID: 69878523