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Letter

Nature Physics 3, 319–323 (1 May 2007) | doi:10.1038/nphys571

Probing quantum phases of ultracold atoms in optical lattices by transmission spectra in cavity quantum electrodynamics

Igor B. Mekhov , Christoph Maschler & Helmut Ritsch

Studies of ultracold gases in optical lattices provide a means for testing fundamental and application-oriented quantum many-body concepts of condensed-matter physics in well controllable atomic systems; examples include strongly correlated phases and quantum-information processing. Standard methods to observe quantum properties of Bose–Einstein condensates are based on matter–wave interference between atoms released from traps, a method that ultimately destroys the system.