Realization of a Rydberg-dressed extended Bose-Hubbard model

The competition of different length scales in quantum many-body systems leads to phenomena such as correlated dynamics and nonlocal order. To investigate such effects in an itinerant lattice-based quantum simulator, it has been proposed to introduce tunable extended-range interactions using off-resonant optical coupling to Rydberg states, known as Rydberg dressing. In this work, we use this approach to realize an effective one-dimensional extended Bose-Hubbard model. Harnessing our quantum gas microscope, we probe the correlated out-of-equilibrium dynamics of extended-range repulsively bound pairs and "hard rods." By contrast, operating near equilibrium, we observe density ordering when adiabatically turning on the extended-range interactions. Our results pave the way to realizing light-controlled extended-range interacting quantum many-body systems.