We study the atom-light interaction in the fully quantum regime, with the focus on off-resonant light scattering into a cavity from ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice. Because of the global coupling between the atoms and the light modes, observing the photons leaking from the cavity allows the quantum nondemolition (QND) measurement of quantum correlations of the atomic ensemble, distinguishing between different quantum states. Moreover, the detection of the photons perturbs the quantum state of the atoms via the so-called measurement backaction. This effect constitutes an unusual additional dynamical source in a many-body strongly correlated system and it is able to efficiently compete with its intrinsic short-range dynamics. This competition becomes possible due to the ability to change the spatial profile of a global measurement at a microscopic scale comparable to the lattice period, without the need of single site addressing. We demonstrate nontrivial dynamical effects such as large-scale multimode oscillations, breakup and protection of strongly interacting fermion pairs. We show that measurement backaction can be exploited for realizing quantum states with spatial modulations of the density and magnetization, thus overcoming usual requirement for a strong interatomic interactions. We propose detection schemes for implementing antiferromagnetic states and density waves and we demonstrate that such long-range correlations cannot be realized with local addressing. Finally, we describe how to stabilize these emerging phases with the aid of quantum feedback. Such a quantum optical approach introduces into many-body physics novel processes, objects, and methods of quantum engineering, including the design of many-body entangled environments for open systems and it is easily extendable to other systems promising for quantum technologies.

This thesis deals with systems of interacting particles with very low energy in the limit where the particle-particle scattering is much larger than the range of the interactions. We use a quantum-field-theory approach which allows us to study both few-body and dense-matter systems in a unified framework. This allows to introduce composite fields of two and three particles (when appropriate). The quantum corrections are calculated nonperturbatively with the Functional RenormalisationGroup. We deal with three types of systems. First we study systems with three and four scalar particles. For three-particle systems our framework describes the Efimov effect. During the FRG flow in the scaling limit, the four-particle system has an infinite sequence of (unphysical) four-particle states on top of each Efimov trimer. This is a case of super Efimov behaviour. Three of these four-particle states survive to the physical limit. Two of these three states have been found in exact quantum-mechanical calculations, and have also been observed in gases of ultracold atoms. Next, this thesis studies systems of three and four spin-1/2 particles. In the scaling limit, we find attractive fixed points for the three- and four-particle systems. Out of the scaling limit, we study atom-molecule scattering and molecule-molecule scattering, in particular their scattering length. Finally, we study dense-matter systems of spin-1/2 particles. This calculation includes all the two-, three-, and four-particle interactions. These systems show spontaneous symmetry breaking: the two-particle field has a finite classical value. We find the value of the atom gap in units of the chemical potential.

This thesis contains four studies of the effects of disorder and randomness on strongly correlated quantum phases of matter. Starting with an itinerant ferromagnet, I first use an order-by-disorder approach to show that adding quenched charged disorder to the model generates new quantum fluctuations in the vicinity of the quantum critical point which lead to the formation of a novel magnetic phase known as a helical glass. Switching to bosons, I then employ a momentum-shell renormalisation group analysis of disordered lattice gases of bosons where I show that disorder breaks ergodicity in a non-trivial way, leading to unexpected glassy freezing effects. This work was carried out in the context of ultracold atomic gases, however the same physics can be realised in dimerised quantum antiferromagnets. By mapping the antiferromagnetic model onto a hard-core lattice gas of bosons, I go on to show the importance of the non-ergodic effects to the thermodynamics of the model and find evidence for an unusual glassy phase known as a Mott glass not previously thought to exist in this model. Finally, I use a mean-field numerical approach to simulate current generation quantum gas microscopes and demonstrate the feasibility of a novel measurement scheme designed to measure the Edwards-Anderson order parameter, a quantity which describes the degree of ergodicity breaking and which has never before been experimentally measured in any strongly correlated quantum system. Together, these works show that the addition of disorder into strongly interacting quantum systems can lead to qualitatively new behaviour, triggering the formation of new phases and new physics, rather than simply leading to small quantitative changes to the physics of the clean system. They provide new insights into the underlying physics of the models and make direct connection with experimental systems which can be used to test the results presented here.

Les systèmes quantiques unidimensionnels à N corps présentent des comportements particuliers et intrigants liés à leur dimensionnalité réduite, qui amplifie l’effet des fluctuations et des corrélations. Les expériences de gaz d’atomes ultra-froids permettent d’isoler et de contrôler efficacement les paramètres du système et de simuler des systèmes modèles pour lesquels il existe de nombreux outils théoriques. Je présenterai ici les résultats des études réalisées pendant ma thèse de Doctorat, visant à explorer le comportement de gaz de Bose unidimensionnels (gaz de Lieb-Liniger) à l’équilibre et hors équilibre. Je donnerai notamment un aperçu de la boite à outils aujourd’hui disponible permettant de caractériser les propriétés thermodynamiques d’un gaz de Lieb-Liniger, et présenterai une étude détaillée du mode de respiration d’un tel système. / One-dimensional quantum many-body systems exhibit peculiar and intriguing behaviors as a consequence of the reduced dimensionality, which enhances the effect of fluctuations and correlations. The high degree of isolation and controllability of experiments manipulating ultra-cold atomic gases allows for the experimental simulation of text-book models, for which many theory tools are available for quantitative comparison. I will present instances of such efforts carried out during my PhD thesis, namely, the studies performed to investigate the behavior of 1D Bose gas (Lieb-Liniger gas) at equilibrium and beyond. An overview of the toolbox available to date to characterize the equilibrium thermodynamics of a Lieb-Liniger gas will be shown, followed by a detailed study of the breathing mode of such a system.