Geometric squeezing into the lowest Landau level

Abstract

The equivalence between particles under rotation and charged particles in a magnetic field relates phenomena as diverse as spinning atomic nuclei, weather patterns, and the quantum Hall effect. For such systems, quantum mechanics dictates that translations along different directions do not commute, implying a Heisenberg uncertainty relation between spatial coordinates. We implement squeezing of this geometric quantum uncertainty, resulting in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate occupying a single Landau gauge wave function. We resolve the extent of zero-point cyclotron orbits and demonstrate geometric squeezing of the orbits’ centers 7 decibels below the standard quantum limit. The condensate attains an angular momentum exceeding 1000 quanta per particle and an interatomic distance comparable to the cyclotron orbit. This offers an alternative route toward strongly correlated bosonic fluids.