Carbon Nanotubes for the Design and Imaging of Interacting 1D Electron States

The study of interacting many-body physics is traditionally focused on condensed matter, where electrons interact via Coulomb repulsion and create a rich panoply of correlated states. Observing these delicate quantum states demands pristine environments and locally-defined potentials. The challenges of realizing and probing materials systems, however, has driven the creation of quantum simulators, which are clean and tunable by design, but are typically composed of bosonic constituents with weak interactions. Can we make a condensed matter system with the cleanliness and tunability of a quantum simulator? In this talk, I will describe how a new technique allows us to use carbon nanotubes to create pristine 1D electron systems with unparalleled tunability, and how these devices serve as ideal scanning probes to image the spatial correlations of delicate 1D quantum states. These capabilities open the possibility for a new generation of condensed matter experiments exploring interacting electrons, spins, and nano-mechanics in precision-designed potential landscapes.