Localization phenomena in interacting Rydberg lattice gases with position disorder

Abstract

Disordered systems provide paradigmatic instances of ergodicity breaking and localization phenomena. Here we explore the dynamics of excitations in a system of Rydberg atoms held in optical tweezers. The finite temperature produces an intrinsic uncertainty in the atomic positions, which translates into quenched correlated disorder in the interatomic interaction strengths. In a simple approach, the dynamics in the many-body Hilbert space can be understood in terms of a one-dimensional Anderson-like model with disorder on every other site, featuring both localized and delocalized states. We conduct an experiment on an eight-atom chain and observe a clear suppression of excitation transfer. Our experiment accesses a regime which is described by a two-dimensional Anderson model on a "trimmed" square lattice. Our results thus provide a concrete example in which the absence of excitation propagation in a many-body system is directly related to Anderson-like localization in the Hilbert space, which is believed to be the mechanism underlying many-body localization.

8 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• A concise review of Rydberg atom based quantum computation and quantum simulation
• Local optical control of the resonant dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms
• Chirality, Band Structure and Localization in Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics
• Long-range multi-body interactions and three-body anti-blockade in a trapped Rydberg ion chain
• Confinement and bound states of bound states in a transverse-field two-leg Ising ladder
• Non-adiabatic quantum state preparation and quantum state transport in chains of Rydberg atoms
• Phase-diagram and dynamics of Rydberg-dressed fermions in two-dimensions
• Many-body dynamics of holes in a driven, dissipative spin chain of Rydberg superatoms
• Quench dynamics of a dissipative Rydberg gas in the classical and quantum regime