Guin-Dar Lin

Quantum simulation of frustrated Ising spins with trapped ions

A network is frustrated when competing interactions between nodes prevent each bond from being satisfied. This compromise is central to the behaviour of many complex systems, from social and neural networks to protein folding and magnetism. Frustrated networks have highly degenerate ground states, with excess entropy and disorder even at zero temperature. In the case of quantum networks, frustration can lead to massively entangled ground states, underpinning exotic materials such as quantum spin liquids and spin glasses. Here we realize a quantum simulation of frustrated Ising spins in a system of three trapped atomic ions, whose interactions are precisely controlled using optical forces. We study the ground state of this system as it adiabatically evolves from a transverse polarized state, and observe that frustration induces extra degeneracy. We also measure the entanglement in the system, finding a link between frustration and ground-state entanglement. This experimental system can be scaled to simulate larger numbers of spins, the ground states of which (for frustrated interactions) cannot be simulated on a classical computer.

Onset of a quantum phase transition with a trapped ion quantum simulator

A quantum simulator is a well-controlled quantum system that can follow the evolution of a prescribed model whose behaviour may be difficult to determine. A good example is the simulation of a set of interacting spins, where phase transitions between various spin orders can underlie poorly understood concepts such as spin liquids. Here we simulate the emergence of magnetism by implementing a fully connected non-uniform ferromagnetic quantum Ising model using up to 9 trapped (171)Yb(+) ions. By increasing the Ising coupling strengths compared with the transverse field, the crossover from paramagnetism to ferromagnetic order sharpens as the system is scaled up, prefacing the expected quantum phase transition in the thermodynamic limit. We measure scalable order parameters appropriate for large systems, such as various moments of the magnetization. As the results are theoretically tractable, this work provides a critical benchmark for the simulation of intractable arbitrary fully connected Ising models in larger systems.

Large-scale quantum computation in an anharmonic linear ion trap

We propose a large-scale quantum computer architecture by more easily stabilizing a single large linear ion chain in a very simple trap geometry. By confining ions in an anharmonic linear trap with nearly uniform spacing between ions, we show that high-fidelity quantum gates can be realized in large linear ion crystals under the Doppler temperature based on coupling to a near-continuum of transverse motional modes with simple shaped laser pulses.

Quantum simulation of spin models on an arbitrary lattice with trapped ions

A collection of trapped atomic ions represents one of the most attractive platforms for the quantum simulation of interacting spin networks and quantum magnetism. Spin-dependent optical dipole forces applied to an ion crystal create long-range effective spin–spin interactions and allow the simulation of spin Hamiltonians that possess nontrivial phases and dynamics. Here we show how the appropriate design of laser fields can provide for arbitrary multidimensional spin–spin interaction graphs even for the case of a linear spatial array of ions. This scheme uses currently available trap technology and is scalable to levels where the classical methods of simulation are intractable.

Quantum simulation and phase diagram of the transverse-field Ising model with three atomic spins

Abstract : We perform a quantum simulation of the Ising model with a transverse field using a collection of three trapped atomic ion spins. By adiabatically manipulating the Hamiltonian, we directly probe the ground state for a wide range of fields and form of the Ising couplings, leading to a phase diagram of magnetic order in this microscopic system. The technique is scalable to much larger numbers of trapped ion spins, where phase transitions approaching the thermodynamic limit can be studied in cases where theory becomes intractable.

Sharp phase transitions in a small frustrated network of trapped ion spins.

Sharp quantum phase transitions typically require a large system with many particles. Here we show that, for a frustrated fully connected Ising spin network represented by trapped atomic ions, the competition between different spin orders leads to rich phase transitions whose sharpness scales exponentially with the number of spins. This unusual finite-size scaling behavior opens up the possibility of observing sharp quantum phase transitions in a system of just a few trapped ion spins.

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a trapped quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance

We study the superfluid transition in a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas with a magnetic field tuning through a Feshbach resonance. Using an effective two-dimensional Hamiltonian with renormalized interaction between atoms and dressed molecules, we investigate the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature by studying the phase fluctuation effect. We also take into account the trapping potential in the radial plane and discuss the number and superfluid density distributions. These results can be compared to experimental outcomes for gases prepared in one-dimensional optical lattices.

Equilibration and temperature distribution in a driven ion chain

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics and equilibration in a dissipative quantum many-body system—a chain of ions with two points of the chain driven by a thermal bath under different temperatures. Instead of a simple linear temperature gradient (characterized by the local motional excitation) as one expects from a typical classical heat diffusion process, the temperature distribution in the ion chain shows surprisingly rich patterns, which depend on the rate of ion coupling to the bath, the location of driven ions and the dissipation rates of the other ions in the chain. By simulating the temperature evolution, we show that these unusual temperature distribution patterns in the ion chain can be quantitatively tested in experiments within a realistic time scale.

Quantum interference between independent reservoirs in open quantum systems

When a quantum system interacts with multiple reservoirs, the environmental effects are usually treated in an additive manner. We show that this assumption breaks down for non-Markovian environments that have finite memory times. Specifically, we demonstrate that quantum interferences between independent environments can qualitatively modify the dynamics of the physical system. We illustrate this effect with a two level system coupled to two structured photonic reservoirs, discuss its origin using a non-equilibrium diagrammatic technique, and show an example when the application of this interference can result in an improved dark state preparation in a

BCS-BEC crossover of a quasi-two-dimensional Fermi gas : The significance of dressed molecules

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