Dissipation is ubiquitous in nature and plays a crucial role in quantum systems such as causing decoherence of quantum states. Recently, much attention has been paid to an intriguing possibility of dissipation as an efficient tool for the preparation and manipulation of quantum states. We report the realization of successful demonstration of a novel role of dissipation in a quantum phase transition using cold atoms. We realize an engineered dissipative Bose-Hubbard system by introducing a controllable strength of two-body inelastic collision via photoassociation for ultracold bosons in a three-dimensional optical lattice. In the dynamics subjected to a slow ramp-down of the optical lattice, we find that strong on-site dissipation favors the Mott insulating state: The melting of the Mott insulator is delayed, and the growth of the phase coherence is suppressed. The controllability of the dissipation is highlighted by quenching the dissipation, providing a novel method for investigating a quantum many-body state and its nonequilibrium dynamics.

中文翻译：

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观察驱动耗散 Bose-Hubbard 系统的莫特绝缘体与超流体交叉。


耗散在自然界中无处不在，在量子系统中起着至关重要的作用，例如引起量子态的退相干。最近，耗散作为制备和操纵量子态的有效工具的有趣可能性受到了广泛关注。我们报告了使用冷原子成功演示了耗散在量子相变中的新作用。我们通过三维光学晶格中超冷玻色子的光缔合引入可控强度的二体非弹性碰撞，实现了工程耗散玻色-哈伯德系统。在光学晶格缓慢下降的动力学中，我们发现强的现场耗散有利于莫特绝缘态：莫特绝缘体的熔化被延迟，并且相位相干性的增长被抑制。通过耗散的猝灭突出了耗散的可控性，为研究量子多体态及其非平衡动力学提供了一种新方法。