Probing many-body dynamics on a 51-atom quantum simulator
arXiv:1707.04344 · doi:10.1038/nature24622
Abstract
Controllable, coherent many-body systems can provide insights into the fundamental properties of quantum matter, enable the realization of new quantum phases and could ultimately lead to computational systems that outperform existing computers based on classical approaches. Here we demonstrate a method for creating controlled many-body quantum matter that combines deterministically prepared, reconfigurable arrays of individually trapped cold atoms with strong, coherent interactions enabled by excitation to Rydberg states. We realize a programmable Ising-type quantum spin model with tunable interactions and system sizes of up to 51 qubits. Within this model, we observe phase transitions into spatially ordered states that break various discrete symmetries, verify the high-fidelity preparation of these states and investigate the dynamics across the phase transition in large arrays of atoms. In particular, we observe robust manybody dynamics corresponding to persistent oscillations of the order after a rapid quantum quench that results from a sudden transition across the phase boundary. Our method provides a way of exploring many-body phenomena on a programmable quantum simulator and could enable realizations of new quantum algorithms.
17 pages, 13 figures
References in corpus (15)
- The density-matrix renormalization group in the age of matrix product states
- Quantum Computing
- 14-qubit entanglement: creation and coherence
- An atom-by-atom assembler of defect-free arbitrary 2d atomic arrays
- Observation of mesoscopic crystalline structures in a two-dimensional Rydberg gas
- Cooperative atom-light interaction in a blockaded Rydberg ensemble
- Interacting anyons in topological quantum liquids: The golden chain
- Quasiclassical calculations of BBR-induced depopulation rates and effective lifetimes of Rydberg nS, nP and nD alkali-metal atoms with n < 80
- Dynamical crystallization in a low-dimensional Rydberg gas
- Competing density-wave orders in a one-dimensional hard-boson model
- Coherent many-body spin dynamics in a long-range interacting Ising chain
- Mott insulators in strong electric fields
- Dynamics in many-body localized quantum systems without disorder
- Quantum-gas microscopes - A new tool for cold-atom quantum simulators
- The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis in constrained Hilbert spaces: a case study in non-Abelian anyon chains