Progress towards the realization of a quantum degenerate dipolar gas of dysprosium atoms

Long-range interactions, such as Coulomb interaction between electrons and dipolar interaction between magnetic spins, usually govern the behavior of many physical systems. A controlled experimental environment to study quantum effects of long-range interactions is therefore of general interest. Ultracold polar molecules, frozen Rydberg atoms and quantum gases with strong magnetic dipolar interactions offer the possibility to study paradigm systems that can lead to better understanding some physical mechanisms of real matter and possibly to the engineering of new materials. Moreover, the ability to hold them in the ordered environment provided by an optical lattice opens the way to studies of strongly-correlated systems in different dimensionalities. We plan to realize a quantum gas of dysprosium atoms to perform quantum simulations of strongly-correlated dipolar systems. Contrary to alkali atoms, usually employed in cold atoms experiments, dysprosium has the largest magnetic dipole moment, 10 Bohr magnetons, among all elements. For this reason, besides interacting via van der Waals interaction, which has substantially a contact nature, Dy atoms also interact via dipole-dipole magnetic interaction, which is both long-range and anisotropic. The combination of these two ingredients leads to the appearance of peculiar quantum phenomena so far only barely explored. Moreover, Dy isotopes, with both fermionic and bosonic nature, can be brought to quantum degeneracy, allowing statistics-dependent studies.