Anderson localization of a Rydberg electron

Abstract

Highly excited Rydberg atoms inherit their level structure, symmetries, and scaling behavior from the hydrogen atom. We demonstrate that these fundamental properties enable a thermodynamic limit of a single Rydberg atom subjected to interactions with nearby ground-state atoms. The limit is reached by simultaneously increasing the number of ground-state atoms and the level of excitation of the Rydberg atom, for which the Coulomb potential supplies infinitely many and highly degenerate excited states. Our study reveals a surprising connection to an archetypal concept of condensed matter physics, Anderson localization, facilitated by a direct mapping between the Rydberg atom's electronic spectrum and the spectrum of a tight-binding Hamiltonian. The hopping amplitudes of this tight-binding system are determined by the arrangement of ground-state atoms and can range from oscillatory and long-ranged to nearest-neighbor. In the latter we identify clear signatures of the Anderson localization of the Rydberg electron.