  We show that in a gas of ultra cold atoms distance selective two-body loss
can be engineered via the resonant laser excitation of atom pairs to
interacting electronic states. In an optical lattice this leads to a
dissipative Master equation dynamics with Lindblad jump operators that
annihilate atom pairs with a specific interparticle distance. In conjunction
with coherent hopping between lattice sites this unusual dissipation mechanism
leads to the formation of coherent long-lived complexes that can even exhibit
an internal level structure which is strongly coupled to their external motion.
We analyze this counterintuitive phenomenon in detail in a system of hard-core
bosons. While current research has established that dissipation in general can
lead to the emergence of coherent features in many-body systems our work shows
that strong non-local dissipation can effectuate a binding mechanism for
particles.
