Thermalization within a Stark manifold through Rydberg atom interactions
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Abstract
One explanation of the thermalization of an isolated quantum system is the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, which posits that all energy eigenstates are thermal. Based on this idea, we use dynamical typicality to predict the thermal state of ultracold Rb atoms exchanging energy via long-range dipole-dipole interactions. In a magneto-optical trap, we excite the atoms to the center of a manifold of nearly harmonically spaced clusters of Stark energy levels and then allow them to equilibrate. Comparing the equilibrium state to our thermal prediction across a range of densities, we find that the atoms generally fail to thermalize, though they approach the thermal state at the highest tested density.