Lattice assisted spectroscopy: a generalized scanning tunnelling microscope for ultra-cold atoms

We show that the possibility to address and image single sites of an optical lattice, now an experimental reality, allows to measure the frequency-resolved local particle and hole spectra of a wide variety of one- and two-dimensional systems of lattice-confined strongly correlated ultracold atoms. Combining perturbation theory and time-dependent DMRG, we validate this scheme of lattice-assisted spectroscopy (LAS) on several example systems, such as the 1D superfluid and Mott insulator, with and without a parabolic trap, and finally on edge states of the bosonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We also highlight extensions of our basic scheme to obtain an even wider variety of interesting and important frequency resolved spectra.