Pump-Probe spectroscopy of two-Body correlations in ultracold gases

We suggest pump-probe spectroscopy to study pair correlations that determine the many-body dynamics in weakly interacting, dilute ultracold gases. A suitably chosen, short laser pulse depletes the pair density locally, creating a "hole" in the electronic ground state. The dynamics of this nonstationary pair density is monitored by a time-delayed probe pulse. The resulting transient signal allows us to spectrally decompose the hole and to map out the pair correlation function.