  We show that microwave spectroscopy of a dense Rydberg gas trapped on a
superconducting atom chip in the dipole blockade regime reveals directly the
dipole-dipole many-body interaction energy spectrum. We use this method to
investigate the expansion of the Rydberg cloud under the effect of repulsive
van der Waals forces and the breakdown of the frozen gas approximation. This
study opens a promising route for quantum simulation of many-body systems and
quantum information transport in chains of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms.

Atomic Physics;Quantum Gases;Quantum Physics