Fermionic Collective Excitations in a Lattice Gas of Rydberg Atoms

We investigate the many-body quantum states of a laser-driven gas of Rydberg atoms confined to a large spacing ring lattice. If the laser driving is much stronger than the van der Waals interaction among the Rydberg atoms, these many-body states are collective fermionic excitations. The first excited state is a spin wave that extends over the entire lattice. We demonstrate that our system permits us to study fermions in the presence of disorder although no external atomic motion takes place. We analyze how this disorder influences the excitation properties of the fermionic states. Our work shows a route towards the creation of complex many-particle states with atoms in lattices.