Excitation dynamics and full counting statistics for resonant and off-resonant excitation of a strongly correlated cold Rydberg gas

Atoms in high-lying Rydberg states strongly interact with each other via the dipole-dipole or van-der-Waals potential thus permitting the exploration of a wide range of many-body phenomena in strongly interacting systems. The strong interactions between Rydberg atoms under resonant laser driving and non-dissipative conditions become manifest either as spatial correlations compatible with a radius of blockade around an excited atom or through a reduction of fluctuations leading to sub-Poissonian statistics [1]. On the other hand, recent publications show how dissipation leads to novel phases [2, 3] and may facilitate the creation of pure and coherent many-body states.