We report the first detection of the Higgs-type amplitude mode using Bragg spectroscopy in a strongly interacting condensate of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. By the comparison of our experimental data with a spatially resolved, time-dependent bosonic Gutzwiller calculation, we obtain good quantitative agreement. This allows for a clear identification of the amplitude mode, showing that it can be detected with full momentum resolution by going beyond the linear response regime. A systematic shift of the sound and amplitude modes' resonance frequencies due to the finite Bragg beam intensity is observed.

We numerically simulate strongly correlated ultracold bosons coupled to a high-finesse cavity field, pumped by a laser beam in the transverse direction. Assuming a weak $\mathit{classical}$ optical lattice added in the cavity direction, we model this system by a generalized Bose-Hubbard model, which is solved by means of bosonic dynamical mean-field theory. The complete phase diagram is established, which contains two novel self-organized quantum phases, lattice supersolid and checkerboard solid, in addition to conventional phases such as superfluid and Mott insulator. At finite but low temperature, thermal fluctuations are found to enhance the buildup of the self-organized phases. We demonstrate that cavity-mediated long-range interactions can give rise to stable lattice supersolid and checkerboard solid phases even in the regime of strong $s$-wave scattering. In the presence of a harmonic trap, we discuss coexistence of these self-organized phases, as relevant to experiments.

Flat bands play an important role in diffraction-free photonics and attract fundamental interest in many-body physics. Here we report the engineering of flat-band localization of collective excited states of atoms in Creutz superradiance lattices with tunable synthetic gauge fields. Magnitudes and phases of the lattice hopping coefficients can be independently tuned to control the state components of the flat band and the Aharonov-Bohm phases. We can selectively excite the flat band and control the flat-band localization with the synthetic gauge field. Our study provides a room-temperature platform for flat bands of atoms and holds promising applications in exploring correlated topological materials.

We theoretically address magnetic ordering at zero and finite temperature in both homogeneous and trapped Bose-Bose mixtures in optical lattices. By using bosonic dynamical mean-field theory, we obtain the phase diagram of the homogeneous two-component Bose-Hubbard model in a three-dimensional cubic lattice, which features competing magnetic order of XY ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic type in addition to the Mott and superfluid states. We show that these magnetic phases persist also in the presence of a harmonic trap.

Recent experiments have illustrated that long-range two-body interactions can be induced by laser coupling atoms to highly excited Rydberg states. Stimulated by this achievement, we study the supersolidity of lattice bosons in an experimentally relevant situation. In our setup, we consider two-component atoms on a square lattice, where one species is weakly dressed to an electronically high-lying (Rydberg) state, generating a tunable, soft-core shape long-range interaction. Interactions between atoms of the second species and between the two species are characterized by local inter- and intraspecies interactions. Using a dynamical mean-field calculation, we find that interspecies on-site interactions can stabilize a pronounced region of supersolid phases. This is characterized by two distinctive types of supersolids, where the bare species forms supersolid phases that are immersed in strongly correlated quantum phases, i.e., a crystalline solid or supersolid of the dressed atoms. We show that the interspecies interaction leads to a rotonlike instability in the bare species and therefore is crucially important to the supersolid formation. We provide a detailed calculation of the interaction potential to show how our results can be explored under current experimental conditions.