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We calculate the phase diagram of the SU($N$) Hubbard model describing fermionic alkaline earth atoms in a square optical lattice with on-average one atom per site, using a slave-rotor mean-field approximation. We find that the chiral spin liquid predicted for $N\ge5$ and large interactions passes through a fractionalized state with a spinon Fermi surface as interactions are decreased before transitioning to a weakly interacting metal. We also show that by adding an artificial uniform magnetic field with flux per plaquette $2\pi/N$, the chiral spin liquid becomes the ground state for all $N\ge 3$ at large interactions, persists to weaker interactions, and its spin gap increases, suggesting that the spin liquid physics will persist to higher temperatures. We discuss potential methods to realize the artificial gauge fields and detect the predicted phases.

We show that $n$ thermal fermionic alkaline-earth atoms in a flat-bottom trap allow one to robustly implement a spin model displaying two symmetries: the $S_n$ symmetry that permutes atoms occupying different vibrational levels of the trap and the SU($N$) symmetry associated with $N$ nuclear spin states. The high symmetry makes the model exactly solvable, which, in turn, enables the analytic study of dynamical processes such as spin diffusion in this SU($N$) system. We also show how to use this system to generate entangled states that allow for Heisenberg-limited metrology. This highly symmetric spin model should be experimentally realizable even when the vibrational levels are occupied according to a high-temperature thermal or an arbitrary non-thermal distribution., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures (including supplemental materials)

Interacting spin systems are of fundamental relevance in different areas of physics, as well as in quantum information science, and biology. These spin models represent the simplest, yet not fully understood, manifestation of quantum many-body systems. An important outstanding problem is the efficient numerical computation of dynamics in large spin systems. Here we propose a new semiclassical method to study many-body spin dynamics in generic spin lattice models. The method is based on a discrete Monte Carlo sampling in phase-space in the framework of the so-called truncated Wigner approximation. Comparisons with analytical and numerically exact calculations demonstrate the power of the technique. They show that it correctly reproduces the dynamics of one- and two-point correlations and spin squeezing at short times, thus capturing entanglement. Our results open the possibility to study the quantum dynamics accessible to recent experiments in regimes where other numerical methods are inapplicable., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

By applying complementary analytic and numerical methods, we investigate the dynamics of spin-$1/2$ XXZ models with variable-range interactions in arbitrary dimensions. The dynamics we consider is initiated from uncorrelated states that are easily prepared in experiments, and can be equivalently viewed as either Ramsey spectroscopy or a quantum quench. Our primary focus is the dynamical emergence of correlations and entanglement in these far-from-equilibrium interacting quantum systems: we characterize these correlations by the entanglement entropy, concurrence, and squeezing, which are inequivalent measures of entanglement corresponding to different quantum resources. In one spatial dimension, we show that the time evolution of correlation functions manifests a non-perturbative dynamic singularity. This singularity is characterized by a universal power-law exponent that is insensitive to small perturbations. Explicit realizations of these models in current experiments using polar molecules, trapped ions, Rydberg atoms, magnetic atoms, and alkaline-earth and alkali atoms in optical lattices, along with the relative merits and limitations of these different systems, are discussed., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in solids normally originates from the electron motion in the electric field of the crystal. It is key to understanding a variety of spin-transport and topological phenomena, such as Majorana fermions and recently discovered topological insulators. Implementing and controlling spin-orbit coupling is thus highly desirable and could open untapped opportunities for the exploration of unique quantum physics. Here, we show that dipole-dipole interactions can produce an effective SOC in two-dimensional ultracold polar molecule gases. This SOC generates chiral excitations with a non-trivial Berry phase $2\pi$. These excitations, which we call \emph{chirons}, resemble low-energy quasiparticles in bilayer graphene and emerge regardless of the quantum statistics and for arbitrary ratios of kinetic to interaction energies. Chirons manifest themselves in the dynamics of the spin density profile, spin currents, and spin coherences, even for molecules pinned in a deep optical lattice and should be observable in current experiments., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted by Nature Communications

Understanding the many-body dynamics of isolated quantum systems is one of the central challenges in modern physics. To this end, the direct experimental realization of strongly correlated quantum systems allows one to gain insights into the emergence of complex phenomena. Such insights enable the development of theoretical tools that broaden our understanding. Here, we theoretically model and experimentally probe with Ramsey spectroscopy the quantum dynamics of disordered, dipolar-interacting, ultracold molecules in a partially filled optical lattice. We report the capability to control the dipolar interaction strength, and we demonstrate that the many-body dynamics extends well beyond a nearest-neighbor or mean-field picture, and cannot be quantitatively described using previously available theoretical tools. We develop a novel cluster expansion technique and demonstrate that our theoretical method accurately captures the measured dependence of the spin dynamics on molecule number and on the dipolar interaction strength. In the spirit of quantum simulation, this agreement simultaneously benchmarks the new theoretical method and verifies our microscopic understanding of the experiment. Our findings pave the way for numerous applications in quantum information science, metrology, and condensed matter physics.

Recent experimental developments in the loading of ultracold KRb molecules into quasi-two-dimensional traps, combined with the ability to tune the ratio between elastic and loss (inelastic/reactive) collisions through application of an external electric field, are opening the door to achieving efficient evaporative cooling of reactive polar molecules. In this paper, we use Monte Carlo simulations and semianalytic models to study theoretically the experimental parameter regimes in which evaporative cooling is feasible under current trapping conditions. We investigate the effect of the anisotropic character of dipole-dipole collisions and reduced dimensionality on evaporative cooling. We also present an analysis of the experimentally relevant anti-evaporation effects that are induced by chemical reactions that take place when more than one axial vibrational state is populated., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

We investigate theoretically the suppression of two-body losses when the on-site loss rate is larger than all other energy scales in a lattice. This work quantitatively explains the recently observed suppression of chemical reactions between two rotational states of fermionic KRb molecules confined in one-dimensional tubes with a weak lattice along the tubes [Yan et al., Nature 501, 521-525 (2013)]. New loss rate measurements performed for different lattice parameters but under controlled initial conditions allow us to show that the loss suppression is a consequence of the combined effects of lattice confinement and the continuous quantum Zeno effect. A key finding, relevant for generic strongly reactive systems, is that while a single-band theory can qualitatively describe the data, a quantitative analysis must include multiband effects. Accounting for these effects reduces the inferred molecule filling fraction by a factor of five. A rate equation can describe much of the data, but to properly reproduce the loss dynamics with a fixed filling fraction for all lattice parameters we develop a mean-field model and benchmark it with numerically exact time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations., Comment: 4+ pages main text, 4 figures. 3 pages supplementary material, 2 figures

Ising models, and the physical systems described by them, play a central role in generating entangled states for use in quantum metrology and quantum information. In particular, ultracold atomic gases, trapped ion systems, and Rydberg atoms realize long-ranged Ising models, which even in the absence of a transverse field can give rise to highly non-classical dynamics and long-range quantum correlations. In the first part of this paper, we present a detailed theoretical framework for studying the dynamics of such systems driven (at time t=0) into arbitrary unentangled non-equilibrium states, thus greatly extending and unifying the work of Ref. [1]. Specifically, we derive exact expressions for closed-time-path ordered correlation functions, and use these to study experimentally relevant observables, e.g. Bloch vector and spin-squeezing dynamics. In the second part, these correlation functions are then used to derive closed-form expressions for the dynamics of arbitrary spin-spin correlation functions in the presence of both T_1 (spontaneous spin relaxation/excitation) and T_2 (dephasing) type decoherence processes. Even though the decoherence is local, our solution reveals that the competition between Ising dynamics and T_1 decoherence gives rise to an emergent non-local dephasing effect, thereby drastically amplifying the degradation of quantum correlations. In addition to identifying the mechanism of this deleterious effect, our solution points toward a scheme to eliminate it via measurement-based coherent feedback., Comment: 34 pages, 11 pages

With the recent production of polar molecules in the quantum regime, long-range dipolar interactions are expected to facilitate the understanding of strongly interacting many-body quantum systems and to realize lattice spin models for exploring quantum magnetism. In atomic systems, where interactions require wave function overlap, effective spin interactions on a lattice can be realized via superexchange; however, the coupling is weak and limited to nearest-neighbor interactions. In contrast, dipolar interactions exist in the absence of tunneling and extend beyond nearest neighbors. This allows coherent spin dynamics to persist even at high entropy and low lattice filling. Effects of dipolar interactions in ultracold molecular gases have so far been limited to the modification of chemical reactions. We now report the observation of dipolar interactions of polar molecules pinned in a 3D optical lattice. We realize a lattice spin model with spin encoded in rotational states, prepared and probed by microwaves. This spin-exchange interaction arises from the resonant exchange of rotational angular momentum between two molecules. We observe clear oscillations in the evolution of the spin coherence in addition to an overall decay. The frequency of these oscillations, the strong dependence of the spin coherence time on the lattice filling, and the effect of a multi-pulse sequence designed to reverse dynamics due to two-body exchange interactions all provide evidence of dipolar interactions. We also demonstrate suppression of loss in weak lattices due to a quantum Zeno mechanism. Measurements of these tunneling-induced losses allow us to independently determine the lattice filling factor. These results comprise an initial exploration of the behavior of many-body spin models with direct, long-range spin interactions and lay the groundwork for future studies of many-body dynamics in spin lattices., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures

We describe theoretical models for the recent experimental observation of Macroscopic Quantum Self-Trapping (MQST) in the transverse dynamics of an ultracold bosonic gas in a 2D lattice. The pure mean-field model based on the solution of coupled nonlinear equations fails to reproduce the experimental observations. It greatly overestimates the initial expansion rates at short times and predicts a slower expansion rate of the cloud at longer times. It also predicts the formation of a hole surrounded by a steep square fort-like barrier which was not observed in the experiment. An improved theoretical description based on a simplified Truncated Wigner Approximation (TWA), which adds phase and number fluctuations in the initial conditions, pushes the theoretical results closer to the experimental observations but fails to quantitatively reproduce them. An explanation of the delayed expansion as a consequence of a new type of self-trapping mechanism, where quantum correlations suppress tunneling even when there are no density gradients, is discussed and supported by numerical time-dependent Density Matrix Renormalization Group (t-DMRG) calculations performed in a simplified two coupled tubes set-up.

We show that ultracold polar molecules pinned in an optical lattice can be used to access a variety of exotic spin models, including the Kitaev honeycomb model. Treating each molecule as a rigid rotor, we use DC electric and microwave fields to define superpositions of rotational levels as effective spin degrees of freedom, while dipole-dipole interactions give rise to interactions between the spins. In particular, we show that, with sufficient microwave control, the interaction between two spins can be written as a sum of five independently controllable Hamiltonian terms proportional to the five rank-2 spherical harmonics Y_{2,q}(theta,phi), where (theta,phi) are the spherical coordinates of the vector connecting the two molecules. To demonstrate the potential of this approach beyond the simplest examples studied in [S. R. Manmana et al., arXiv:1210.5518v2], we focus on the realization of the Kitaev honeycomb model, which can support exotic non-Abelian anyonic excitations. We also discuss the possibility of generating spin Hamiltonians with arbitrary spin S, including those exhibiting SU(N=2S+1) symmetry., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to a special issue of Molecular Physics

We show how to use polar molecules in an optical lattice to engineer quantum spin models with arbitrary spin S >= 1/2 and with interactions featuring a direction-dependent spin anisotropy. This is achieved by encoding the effective spin degrees of freedom in microwave-dressed rotational states of the molecules and by coupling the spins through dipolar interactions. We demonstrate how one of the experimentally most accessible anisotropies stabilizes symmetry protected topological phases in spin ladders. Using the numerically exact density matrix renormalization group method, we find that these interacting phases -- previously studied only in the nearest-neighbor case -- survive in the presence of long-range dipolar interactions. We also show how to use our approach to realize the bilinear-biquadratic spin-1 and the Kitaev honeycomb models. Experimental detection schemes and imperfections are discussed., Comment: Main text: 4 pages plus references, 3 figures. Supplementary info.: 4+epsilon pages. v2: significantly improved presentation

The interplay between interactions and decoherence in many-body systems is of fundamental importance in quantum physics: Decoherence can degrade correlations, but can also give rise to a variety of rich dynamical and steady-state behaviors. We obtain an exact analytic solution for the non-equilibrium dynamics of Ising models with arbitrary interactions and subject to the most general form of local Markovian decoherence. Our solution shows that decoherence affects the relaxation of observables more than predicted by single-particle considerations. It also reveals a dynamical phase transition, specifically a Hopf bifurcation, which is absent at the single-particle level. These calculations are applicable to ongoing quantum information and emulation efforts using a variety of atomic, molecular, optical, and solid-state systems., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, citations added

Recent theory has indicated how to emulate tunable models of quantum magnetism with ultracold polar molecules. Here we show that present molecule optical lattice experiments can accomplish three crucial goals for quantum emulation, despite currently being well below unit filling and not quantum degenerate. The first is to verify and benchmark the models proposed to describe these systems. The second is to prepare correlated and possibly useful states in well-understood regimes. The third is to explore many-body physics inaccessible to existing theoretical techniques. Our proposal relies on a non-equilibrium protocol that can be viewed either as Ramsey spectroscopy or an interaction quench. It uses only routine experimental tools available in any ultracold molecule experiment., Comment: 6+ pages, 4 figures

Entanglement is typically created via systematic intervention in the time evolution of an initially unentangled state, which can be achieved by coherent control, carefully tailored non-demolition measurements, or dissipation in the presence of properly engineered reservoirs. In this paper we show that two-component Fermi gases at ~\mu K temperatures naturally evolve, in the presence of reactive two-body collisions, into states with highly entangled (Dicke-type) spin wavefunctions. The entanglement is a steady-state property that emerges---without any intervention---from uncorrelated initial states, and could be used to improve the accuracy of spectroscopy in experiments with fermionic alkaline earth atoms or fermionic groundstate molecules., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

We study the transverse expansion of arrays of ultracold $^{87}$Rb atoms weakly confined in tubes created by a 2D optical lattice, and observe that transverse expansion is delayed because of mutual atom interactions. A mean-field model of a coupled array shows that atoms become localized within a roughly square fort-like self-trapping barrier with time-evolving edges. But the observed dynamics is poorly described by the mean-field model. Theoretical introduction of random phase fluctuations among tubes improves the agreement with experiment, but does not correctly predict the density at which the atoms start to expand with larger lattice depths. Our results suggest a new type of self-trapping, where quantum correlations suppress tunneling even when there are no density gradients.

Ultracold fermionic alkaline earth atoms confined in optical lattices realize Hubbard models with internal SU(N) symmetries, where N can be as large as ten. Such systems are expected to harbor exotic magnetic physics at temperatures below the superexchange energy scale. Employing quantum Monte Carlo simulations to access the low-temperature regime, we show that after adiabatically loading a weakly interacting gas into the strongly interacting regime of an optical lattice, the final temperature decreases with increasing N. Furthermore, we estimate the temperature scale required to probe correlations associated with low-temperature SU(N) magnetism. Our findings are encouraging for the exploration of exotic large-N magnetic states in ongoing experiments., Comment: 4+ pages including 3 figures

Mean-field dynamics of strongly interacting bosons described by hard core bosons with nearest-neighbor attraction has been shown to support two species of solitons: one of Gross-Pitaevskii (GP-type) where the condensate fraction remains dark and a novel non-Gross-Pitaevskii-type (non-GP-type) characterized by brightening of the condensate fraction. Here we study the effects of quantum fluctuations on these solitons using the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method, which takes into account the effect of strong correlations. We use local observables as the density, condensate density and correlation functions as well as the entanglement entropy to characterize the stability of the initial states. We find both species of solitons to be stable under quantum evolution for a finite duration, their tolerance to quantum fluctuations being enhanced as the width of the soliton increases. We describe possible experimental realizations in atomic Bose Einstein Condensates, polarized degenerate Fermi gases, and in systems of polar molecules on optical lattices.

Finite size scalings of the momentum distribution and noise correlations are performed to study Mott insulator, Bose glass, and superfluid quantum phases in hard-core bosons (HCBs) subjected to quasi-periodic disorder. The exponents of the correlation functions at the Superfluid to Bose glass (SF-BG) transition are found to be approximately one half of the ones that characterizes the superfluid phase. The derivatives of the peak intensities of the correlation functions with respect to quasiperiodic disorder are shown to diverge at the SF-BG critical point. This behavior does not occur in the corresponding free fermion system, which also exhibits an Anderson-like transition at the same critical point, and thus provides a unique experimental tool to locate the phase transition in interacting bosonic systems. We also report on the absence of primary sublattice peaks in the momentum distribution of the superfluid phase for special fillings., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, as published

Recent work on ultracold polar molecules, governed by a generalization of the t-J Hamiltonian, suggests that molecules may be better suited than atoms for studying d-wave superfluidity due to stronger interactions and larger tunability of the system. We compute the phase diagram for polar molecules in a checkerboard lattice consisting of weakly coupled square plaquettes. In the simplest experimentally realizable case where there is only tunneling and an XX-type spin-spin interaction, we identify the parameter regime where d-wave superfluidity occurs. We also find that the inclusion of a density-density interaction destroys the superfluid phase and that the inclusion of a spin-density or an Ising-type spin-spin interaction can enhance the superfluid phase. We also propose schemes for experimentally realizing the perturbative calculations exhibiting enhanced d-wave superfluidity., Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures; v2: revised discussions

We have realized long-lived ground-state polar molecules in a 3D optical lattice, with a lifetime of up to 25 s, which is limited only by off-resonant scattering of the trapping light. Starting from a 2D optical lattice, we observe that the lifetime increases dramatically as a small lattice potential is added along the tube-shaped lattice traps. The 3D optical lattice also dramatically increases the lifetime for weakly bound Feshbach molecules. For a pure gas of Feshbach molecules, we observe a lifetime of >20 s in a 3D optical lattice; this represents a 100-fold improvement over previous results. This lifetime is also limited by off-resonant scattering, the rate of which is related to the size of the Feshbach molecule. Individually trapped Feshbach molecules in the 3D lattice can be converted to pairs of K and Rb atoms and back with nearly 100% efficiency.

We investigate one dimensional SU$(N)$ Hubbard chains at zero temperature, which can be emulated with ultracold alkaline earth atoms, by using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), Bethe ansatz (BA), and bosonization. We compute experimental observables and use the DMRG to benchmark the accuracy of the Bethe ansatz for $N>2$ where the BA is only approximate. In the worst case, we find a relative error $\epsilon \lesssim 4%$ in the BA ground state energy for $N \leq 4$ at filling 1/N, which is due to the fact that BA improperly treats the triply and higher occupied states. Using the DMRG for $N \leq 4$ and the BA for large $N$, we determine the regimes of validity of strong- and weak-coupling perturbation theory for all values of $N$ and in particular, the parameter range in which the system is well described by a SU$(N)$ Heisenberg model at filling 1/N. We find this depends only weakly on $N$. We investigate the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition from a Luttinger liquid to a Mott-insulator by computing the fidelity susceptibility and the Luttinger parameter $K_\rho$ at 1/N filling. The numerical findings give strong evidence that the fidelity susceptibility develops a minimum at a critical interaction strength which is found to occur at a finite positive value for $N>2$., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures and 2 tables; slightly revised version as published in Phys. Rev. A

We observe two-body loss of ${}^3P_0$ ${}^{87}$Sr atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We measure loss rate coefficients for atomic samples between 1 and 6 $\mu$K that are prepared either in a single nuclear-spin-sublevel or with equal populations in two sublevels. The measured temperature and nuclear spin preparation dependence of rate coefficients agree well with calculations and reveal that rate coefficients for distinguishable atoms are only slightly enhanced over those of indistinguishable atoms. We further observe a suppression of excitation and losses during interrogation of the ${}^1S_0$-${}^3P_0$ transition as density increases and Rabi frequency decreases, which suggests the presence of strong interactions in our dynamically driven many-body system.

We show that the dilute Fermi gas quantum critical universality class quantitatively describes the Mott/metal crossover of the two-dimensional Hubbard model for temperatures somewhat less than (roughly half) the tunneling but much greater than (roughly twice) the superexchange energy. We calculate the observables expected to be universal near the transition --- density and compressibility --- with numerically exact determinantal quantum Monte Carlo. We find they are universal functions of the chemical potential. Despite arising from the strongly correlated regime of the Hubbard model, these functions are given by the weakly interacting, dilute Fermi gas model. These observables and their derivatives are the only expected universal static observables of this universality class, which we also confirm by verifying there is no scaling collapse of the kinetic energy, fraction of doubly occupied sites, and nearest neighbor spin correlations. Our work resolves the universality class of the intermediate temperature Mott/metal crossover, which had alternatively been proposed to be described by more exotic theories. However, in the presence of a Zeeman magnetic field, we find that interplay of spin with itinerant charge can lead to physics beyond the dilute Fermi gas universality class., Comment: Main text: 4 pages, 2 figures (6 panels). Supplementary info.: 2 pages, 3 figures (7 panels)

Motivated by ongoing measurements at JILA, we calculate the recoil-free spectra of dipolar interacting fermions, for example ultracold heteronuclear molecules, in a one-dimensional lattice of two-dimensional pancakes, spectroscopically probing transitions between different internal (e.g., rotational) states. We additionally incorporate p-wave interactions and losses, which are important for reactive molecules such as KRb. Moreover, we consider other sources of spectral broadening: interaction-induced quasiparticle lifetimes and the different polarizabilities of the different rotational states used for the spectroscopy. Although our main focus is molecules, some of the calculations are also useful for optical lattice atomic clocks. For example, understanding the p-wave shifts between identical fermions and small dipolar interactions coming from the excited clock state are necessary to reach future precision goals. Finally, we consider the spectra in a deep 3D lattice and show how they give a great deal of information about static correlation functions, including \textit{all} the moments of the density correlations between nearby sites. The range of correlations measurable depends on spectroscopic resolution and the dipole moment., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We show that dipolar interactions between ultracold polar alkali dimers in optical lattices can be used to realize a highly tunable generalization of the t-J model, which we refer to as the t-J-V-W model. The model features long-range spin-spin interactions J_z and J_perp of XXZ type, long-range density-density interaction V, and long-range density-spin interaction W, all of which can be controlled in both magnitude and sign independently of each other and of the tunneling t. The "spin" is encoded in the rotational degree of freedom of the molecules, while the interactions are controlled by applied static electric and continuous-wave microwave fields. Furthermore, we show that nuclear spins of the molecules can be used to implement an additional (orbital) degree of freedom that is coupled to the original rotational degree of freedom in a tunable way. The presented system is expected to exhibit exotic physics and to provide insights into strongly correlated phenomena in condensed matter systems. Realistic experimental imperfections are discussed., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures

By selecting two dressed rotational states of ultracold polar molecules in an optical lattice, we obtain a highly tunable generalization of the t-J model, which we refer to as the t-J-V-W model. In addition to XXZ spin exchange, the model features density-density interactions and novel density-spin interactions; all interactions are dipolar. We show that full control of all interaction parameters in both magnitude and sign can be achieved independently of each other and of the tunneling. As a first step towards demonstrating the potential of the system, we apply the density matrix renormalization group method (DMRG) to obtain the 1D phase diagram of the simplest experimentally realizable case. Specifically, we show that the tunability and the long-range nature of the interactions in the t-J-V-W model enable enhanced superfluidity. Finally, we show that Bloch oscillations in a tilted lattice can be used to probe the phase diagram experimentally., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We investigate the resonantly enhanced tunneling dynamics of ultracold bosons loaded on a tilted 1-D optical lattice, which can be used to simulate a chain of Ising spins and associated quantum phase transitions. The center of mass motion after a sudden tilt both at commensurate and incommensurate fillings is obtained via analytic, time-dependent exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods (adaptive t-DMRG). We identify a maximum in the amplitude of the center of mass oscillations at the quantum critical point of the effective spin system. For the dynamics of incommensurate systems, which cannot be mapped to a spin model, we develop an analytical approach in which the time evolution is obtained by projecting onto resonant families of small clusters. We compare the results of this approach at low fillings to the exact time evolution and find good agreement even at filling factors as large as 2/3. Using this projection onto small clusters, we propose a controllable transport scheme applicable in the context of Atomtronic devices on optical lattices (`slinky scheme')., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A

We theoretically study the relaxation of high energy single particle excitations into molecules in a system of attractive fermions in an optical lattice, both in the superfluid and the normal phase. In a system characterized by an interaction scale $U$ and a tunneling rate $t$, we show that the relaxation rate scales as $\sim Ct\exp(-\alpha U^2/t^2)$ in the large $U/t$ limit. We obtain explicit expressions for the exponent $\alpha$, both in the low temperature superfluid phase and the high temperature phase with pairing but no coherence between the molecules. We find that the relaxation rate decreases both with temperature and deviation of the fermion density from half-filling. We show that quasiparticle and phase degrees of freedom are effectively decoupled within experimental timescales allowing for observation of ordered states even at high total energy of the system., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures