Special Issue on Rydberg atom physics

The 2017 Special Issue of Journal of Physics discusses papers on Rydberg atom physics. Papers by Maineult and colleagues, Bigelow and colleagues and Paris-Mandoki and colleagues address various issues that focus on the effects of angular dependence and higher order interactions. These interactions can be manipulated by changing the structure of the atom by placing it in electric and magnetic fields. In Cubel-Liebisch and colleagues, the density shifts and spectra originating from the interaction of a Rydberg electron with neighboring atoms are reviewed. McCulloch and colleagues present a review on cold electron sources using laser-cooled atoms. As pointed out by the authors, such sources may have profound effects on the next generation of x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) and coherent diffractive imaging. Saffman reviews the state-of-the-art in quantum computing with Rydberg atoms. Substantial progress is apparent in the preparation large arrays of neutral atom qubits, and the emergence of new methods such as Rydberg dressing and dissipative entanglement. The review by Saffman also covers the related area of quantum simulation, where the outcome is not a computation but rather the generation of particular types of quantum many-body dynamics. Chougale and colleagues consider the use of Rydberg atoms to simulate the important class of quantum systems that can be described by Bose Hubbard models. They show that Rydberg atoms provide a route to implementing a class of so-called extended Bose Hubbard models, with tunable on-site and offsite interactions.