Exploring non-equilibrium many-body physics with alkaline earth atoms and polar molecules

Among of the ultimate goals of modern science is the understanding of emergent complex properties of matter in the strongly interacting regime from simple constituents and their interactions. This understanding can lead towards the development of new materials and devices with novel functionalities both at the level of basic research and for numerous technological applications. Richard Feynman´s pioneering ideas of quantum simulation constitute a promising path to reach such goals. A major push to implement them has been possible thanks to advances in cooling and trapping atoms in optical lattices. These systems are not only a defect-free replica of electrons in crystalline lattices but, in addition satisfy the requirement of full controllability.