@article {2637, title = {Critical Theory for the Breakdown of Photon Blockade}, year = {2020}, month = {6/9/2020}, abstract = {

Photon blockade is the result of the interplay between the quantized nature of light and strong optical nonlinearities, whereby strong photon-photon repulsion prevents a quantum optical system from absorbing multiple photons. We theoretically study a single atom coupled to the light field, described by the resonantly driven Jaynes--Cummings model, in which case the photon blockade breaks down in a second order phase transition at a critical drive strength. We show that this transition is associated to the spontaneous breaking of an anti-unitary PT-symmetry. Within a semiclassical approximation we calculate the expectation values of observables in the steady state. We then move beyond the semiclassical approximation and approach the critical point from the disordered (blockaded) phase by reducing the Lindblad quantum master equation to a classical rate equation that we solve. The width of the steady-state distribution in Fock space is found to diverge as we approach the critical point with a simple power-law, allowing us to calculate the critical scaling of steady state observables without invoking mean-field theory. We propose a simple physical toy model for biased diffusion in the space of occupation numbers, which captures the universal properties of the steady state. We list several experimental platforms where this phenomenon may be observed.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.05593}, author = {Jonathan B. Curtis and Igor Boettcher and Jeremy T. Young and Mohammad F. Maghrebi and Howard Carmichael and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Michael Foss-Feig} } @article {2363, title = {Non-equilibrium fixed points of coupled Ising models}, journal = {Phys. Rev. X }, volume = {10}, year = {2020}, month = {2/26/2020}, abstract = {

Driven-dissipative systems can exhibit non-equilibrium phenomena that are absent in their equilibrium counterparts. However, phase transitions present in these systems generically exhibit an effectively classical equilibrium behavior in spite of their quantum non-equilibrium origin. In this paper, we show that multicritical points in driven-dissipative systems can give rise to genuinely non-equilibrium behavior. We investigate a non-equilibrium driven-dissipative model of interacting bosons that exhibits two distinct phase transitions: one from a high- to a low-density phase---reminiscent of a liquid-gas transition---and another to an antiferromagnetic phase. Each phase transition is described by the Ising universality class characterized by an (emergent or microscopic) Z2 symmetry. They, however, coalesce at a multicritical point giving rise to a non-equilibrium model of coupled Ising-like order parameters described by a Z2\×Z2 symmetry. Using a dynamical renormalization-group approach, we show that a pair of non-equilibrium fixed points (NEFPs) emerge that govern the long-distance critical behavior of the system. We elucidate various exotic features of these NEFPs. In particular, we show that a generic continuous scale invariance at criticality is reduced to a discrete scale invariance. This further results in complex-valued critical exponents, spiraling phase boundaries, and a complex Liouvillian gap even close to the phase transition. As direct evidence of the non-equilibrium nature of the NEFPs, we show that the fluctuation-dissipation relation is violated at all scales, leading to an effective temperature that becomes \"hotter\" and \"hotter\" at longer and longer wavelengths. Finally, we argue that this non-equilibrium behavior can be observed in cavity arrays with cross-Kerr nonlinearities.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011039}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.02569}, author = {Jeremy T. Young and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Michael Foss-Feig and Mohammad F. Maghrebi} } @article {2195, title = {Locality and digital quantum simulation of power-law interactions}, journal = {Phys. Rev. X 9, 031006}, volume = {9}, year = {2019}, month = {07/10/2019}, abstract = {

The propagation of information in non-relativistic quantum systems obeys a speed limit known as a Lieb-Robinson bound. We derive a new Lieb-Robinson bound for systems with interactions that decay with distance r as a power law, 1/rα. The bound implies an effective light cone tighter than all previous bounds. Our approach is based on a technique for approximating the time evolution of a system, which was first introduced as part of a quantum simulation algorithm by Haah et al. [arXiv:1801.03922]. To bound the error of the approximation, we use a known Lieb-Robinson bound that is weaker than the bound we establish. This result brings the analysis full circle, suggesting a deep connection between Lieb-Robinson bounds and digital quantum simulation. In addition to the new Lieb-Robinson bound, our analysis also gives an error bound for the Haah et al. quantum simulation algorithm when used to simulate power-law decaying interactions. In particular, we show that the gate count of the algorithm scales with the system size better than existing algorithms when α\>3D (where D is the number of dimensions).

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.031006}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.05225}, author = {Minh C. Tran and Andrew Y. Guo and Yuan Su and James R. Garrison and Zachary Eldredge and Michael Foss-Feig and Andrew M. Childs and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2278, title = {Distributed Quantum Metrology and the Entangling Power of Linear Networks}, journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 043604}, year = {2018}, month = {2018/07/25}, abstract = {

We derive a bound on the ability of a linear optical network to estimate a linear combination of independent phase shifts by using an arbitrary non-classical but unentangled input state, thereby elucidating the quantum resources required to obtain the Heisenberg limit with a multi-port interferometer. Our bound reveals that while linear networks can generate highly entangled states, they cannot effectively combine quantum resources that are well distributed across multiple modes for the purposes of metrology: in this sense linear networks endowed with well-distributed quantum resources behave classically. Conversely, our bound shows that linear networks can achieve the Heisenberg limit for distributed metrology when the input photons are hoarded in a small number of input modes, and we present an explicit scheme for doing so. Our results also have implications for measures of non-classicality.\ 

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.043604}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06655}, author = {Wenchao Ge and Kurt Jacobs and Zachary Eldredge and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Michael Foss-Feig} } @article {2137, title = {Distributed Quantum Metrology and the Entangling Power of Linear Networks}, year = {2018}, month = {2018/07/25}, abstract = {

We derive a bound on the ability of a linear optical network to estimate a linear combination of independent phase shifts by using an arbitrary non-classical but unentangled input state, thereby elucidating the quantum resources required to obtain the Heisenberg limit with a multi-port interferometer. Our bound reveals that while linear networks can generate highly entangled states, they cannot effectively combine quantum resources that are well distributed across multiple modes for the purposes of metrology: in this sense linear networks endowed with well-distributed quantum resources behave classically. Conversely, our bound shows that linear networks can achieve the Heisenberg limit for distributed metrology when the input photons are hoarded in a small number of input modes, and we present an explicit scheme for doing so. Our results also have implications for measures of non-classicality.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.043604}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06655}, author = {Wenchao Ge and Kurt Jacobs and Zachary Eldredge and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Michael Foss-Feig} } @article {2210, title = {Dynamical phase transitions in sampling complexity}, journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.}, volume = {121}, year = {2018}, pages = {12 pages, 4 figures. v3: published version}, abstract = {

We make the case for studying the complexity of approximately simulating (sampling) quantum systems for reasons beyond that of quantum computational supremacy, such as diagnosing phase transitions. We consider the sampling complexity as a function of time\ t\ due to evolution generated by spatially local quadratic bosonic Hamiltonians. We obtain an upper bound on the scaling of\ t\ with the number of bosons\ n\ for which approximate sampling is classically efficient. We also obtain a lower bound on the scaling of\ t\ with\ n\ for which any instance of the boson sampling problem reduces to this problem and hence implies that the problem is hard, assuming the conjectures of Aaronson and Arkhipov [Proc. 43rd Annu. ACM Symp. Theory Comput. STOC \&$\#$39;11]. This establishes a dynamical phase transition in sampling complexity. Further, we show that systems in the Anderson-localized phase are always easy to sample from at arbitrarily long times. We view these results in the light of classifying phases of physical systems based on parameters in the Hamiltonian. In doing so, we combine ideas from mathematical physics and computational complexity to gain insight into the behavior of condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical systems.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.030501}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05332}, author = {Abhinav Deshpande and Bill Fefferman and Minh C. Tran and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1836, title = {Optimal and Secure Measurement Protocols for Quantum Sensor Networks}, year = {2018}, month = {2018/03/23}, abstract = {

Studies of quantum metrology have shown that the use of many-body entangled states can lead to an enhancement in sensitivity when compared to product states. In this paper, we quantify the metrological advantage of entanglement in a setting where the quantity to be measured is a linear function of parameters coupled to each qubit individually. We first generalize the Heisenberg limit to the measurement of non-local observables in a quantum network, deriving a bound based on the multi-parameter quantum Fisher information. We then propose a protocol that can make use of GHZ states or spin-squeezed states, and show that in the case of GHZ states the procedure is optimal, i.e., it saturates our bound.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.042337}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1607.04646}, author = {Zachary Eldredge and Michael Foss-Feig and Steven L. Rolston and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1952, title = {Complexity of sampling as an order parameter}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/03/15}, abstract = {

We consider the classical complexity of approximately simulating time evolution under spatially local quadratic bosonic Hamiltonians for time\ t. We obtain upper and lower bounds on the scaling of\ twith the number of bosons,\ n, for which simulation, cast as a sampling problem, is classically efficient and provably hard, respectively. We view these results in the light of classifying phases of physical systems based on parameters in the Hamiltonian and conjecture a link to dynamical phase transitions. In doing so, we combine ideas from mathematical physics and computational complexity to gain insight into the behavior of condensed matter systems.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05332}, author = {Abhinav Deshpande and Bill Fefferman and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2001, title = {{E}ntanglement area laws for long-range interacting systems}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {119}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/07/31}, pages = {050501}, abstract = {

We prove that the entanglement entropy of any state evolved under an arbitrary 1/rα long-range-interacting D-dimensional lattice spin Hamiltonian cannot change faster than a rate proportional to the boundary area for any α \> D + 1. We also prove that for any α \> 2D + 2, the ground state of such a Hamiltonian satisfies the entanglement area law if it can be transformed along a gapped adiabatic path into a ground state known to satisfy the area law. These results significantly generalize their existing counterparts for short-range interacting systems, and are useful for identifying dynamical phase transitions and quantum phase transitions in the presence of long-range interactions.

}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.050501}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.05368}, author = {Zhe-Xuan Gong and Michael Foss-Feig and Fernando G. S. L. Brand{\~a}o and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1906, title = {Emergent equilibrium in many-body optical bistability}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {95}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/04/17}, pages = {043826}, abstract = {

Many-body systems constructed of quantum-optical building blocks can now be realized in experimental platforms ranging from exciton-polariton fluids to ultracold gases of Rydberg atoms, establishing a fascinating interface between traditional many-body physics and the driven-dissipative, non-equilibrium setting of cavity-QED. At this interface, the standard techniques and intuitions of both fields are called into question, obscuring issues as fundamental as the role of fluctuations, dimensionality, and symmetry on the nature of collective behavior and phase transitions. Here, we study the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model, a minimal description of numerous atomic, optical, and solid-state systems in which particle loss is countered by coherent driving. Despite being a lattice version of optical bistability---a foundational and patently non-equilibrium model of cavity-QED---the steady state possesses an emergent equilibrium description in terms of a classical Ising model. We establish this picture by identifying a limit in which the quantum dynamics is asymptotically equivalent to non-equilibrium Langevin equations, which support a phase transition described by model A of the Hohenberg-Halperin classification. Numerical simulations of the Langevin equations corroborate this picture, producing results consistent with the behavior of a finite-temperature Ising model.

}, doi = {doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.043826}, url = {https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.043826}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Pradeep Niroula and Jeremy T. Young and Mohammad Hafezi and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Ryan M. Wilson and Mohammad F. Maghrebi} } @article {1921, title = {Exact sampling hardness of Ising spin models}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {96}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/09/14}, pages = {032324}, abstract = {

We study the complexity of classically sampling from the output distribution of an Ising spin model, which can be implemented naturally in a variety of atomic, molecular, and optical systems. In particular, we construct a specific example of an Ising Hamiltonian that, after time evolution starting from a trivial initial state, produces a particular output configuration with probability very nearly proportional to the square of the permanent of a matrix with arbitrary integer entries. In a similar spirit to boson sampling, the ability to sample classically from the probability distribution induced by time evolution under this Hamiltonian would imply unlikely complexity theoretic consequences, suggesting that the dynamics of such a spin model cannot be efficiently simulated with a classical computer. Physical Ising spin systems capable of achieving problem-size instances (i.e., qubit numbers) large enough so that classical sampling of the output distribution is classically difficult in practice may be achievable in the near future. Unlike boson sampling, our current results only imply hardness of\ exact\ classical sampling, leaving open the important question of whether a much stronger approximate-sampling hardness result holds in this context. The latter is most likely necessary to enable a convincing experimental demonstration of quantum supremacy. As referenced in a recent paper [A. Bouland, L. Mancinska, and X. Zhang, in\ Proceedings of the 31st Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC 2016), Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (Schloss Dagstuhl\–Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik, Dagstuhl, 2016)], our result completes the sampling hardness classification of two-qubit commuting Hamiltonians.

}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.96.032324}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.03167}, author = {Bill Fefferman and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1908, title = {Fast State Transfer and Entanglement Renormalization Using Long-Range Interactions}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {119}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/10/25}, pages = {170503}, abstract = {

In short-range interacting systems, the speed at which entanglement can be established between two separated points is limited by a constant Lieb-Robinson velocity. Long-range interacting systems are capable of faster entanglement generation, but the degree of the speed-up possible is an open question. In this paper, we present a protocol capable of transferring a quantum state across a distance\ L\ in\ d\ dimensions using long-range interactions with strength bounded by\ 1/rα. If\ α\<d, the state transfer time is asymptotically independent of\ L; if\ α=d, the time is logarithmic in distance\ L; if\ d\<α\<d+1, transfer occurs in time proportional to\ Lα\−d; and if\ α\≥d+1, it occurs in time proportional to\ L. We then use this protocol to upper bound the time required to create a state specified by a MERA (multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz) tensor network, and show that, if the linear size of the MERA state is\ L, then it can be created in time that scales with\ L\ identically to state transfer up to multiplicative logarithmic corrections.

}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.170503}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.02442}, author = {Zachary Eldredge and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Ali Hamed Moosavian and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2003, title = {A solvable family of driven-dissipative many-body systems}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {119}, year = {2017}, month = {2017/11/10}, abstract = {

Exactly solvable models have played an important role in establishing the sophisticated modern understanding of equilibrium many-body physics. And conversely, the relative scarcity of solutions for non-equilibrium models greatly limits our understanding of systems away from thermal equilibrium. We study a family of nonequilibrium models, some of which can be viewed as dissipative analogues of the transverse-field Ising model, in that an effectively classical Hamiltonian is frustrated by dissipative processes that drive the system toward states that do not commute with the Hamiltonian. Surprisingly, a broad and experimentally relevant subset of these models can be solved efficiently in any number of spatial dimensions. We leverage these solutions to prove a no-go theorem on steady-state phase transitions in a many-body model that can be realized naturally with Rydberg atoms or trapped ions, and to compute the effects of decoherence on a canonical trapped-ion-based quantum computation architecture.

}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.190402}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04626}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Jeremy T. Young and Victor V. Albert and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Mohammad F. Maghrebi} } @article {1960, title = {Causality and quantum criticality in long-range lattice models}, journal = {Physical Review B}, volume = {93}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/03/17}, pages = {125128}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.93.125128}, url = {http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.125128}, author = {Mohammad F. Maghrebi and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1179, title = {Causality and quantum criticality with long-range interactions}, journal = {Physical Review B}, volume = {92}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/03/17}, pages = {125128}, abstract = { Quantum lattice systems with long-range interactions often exhibit drastically different behavior than their short-range counterparts. In particular, because they do not satisfy the conditions for the Lieb-Robinson theorem, they need not have an emergent relativistic structure in the form of a light cone. Adopting a field-theoretic approach, we study the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model and a fermionic model with long-range interactions, explore their critical and near-critical behavior, and characterize their response to local perturbations. We deduce the dynamic critical exponent, up to the two-loop order within the renormalization group theory, which we then use to characterize the emergent causal behavior. We show that beyond a critical value of the power-law exponent of long-range interactions, the dynamics effectively becomes relativistic. Various other critical exponents describing correlations in the ground state, as well as deviations from a linear causal cone, are deduced for a wide range of the power-law exponent. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.93.125128}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.00906}, author = {Mohammad F. Maghrebi and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1737, title = {Collective phases of strongly interacting cavity photons}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {94}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/09/01}, pages = {033801}, abstract = {

We study a coupled array of coherently driven photonic cavities, which maps onto a driven-dissipative XY spin-12 model with ferromagnetic couplings in the limit of strong optical nonlinearities. Using a site-decoupled mean-field approximation, we identify steady state phases with canted antiferromagnetic order, in addition to limit cycle phases, where oscillatory dynamics persist indefinitely. We also identify collective bistable phases, where the system supports two steady states among spatially uniform, antiferromagnetic, and limit cycle phases. We compare these mean-field results to exact quantum trajectories simulations for finite one-dimensional arrays. The exact results exhibit short-range antiferromagnetic order for parameters that have significant overlap with the mean-field phase diagram. In the mean-field bistable regime, the exact quantum dynamics exhibits real-time collective switching between macroscopically distinguishable states. We present a clear physical picture for this dynamics, and establish a simple relationship between the switching times and properties of the quantum Liouvillian.

}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.033801}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.06857}, author = {Ryan M. Wilson and Khan W. Mahmud and Anzi Hu and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Mohammad Hafezi and Michael Foss-Feig} } @article {2004, title = {Entanglement and spin-squeezing without infinite-range interactions}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/12/22}, abstract = {

Infinite-range interactions are known to facilitate the production of highly entangled states with applications in quantum information and metrology. However, many experimental systems have interactions that decay with distance, and the achievable benefits in this context are much less clear. Combining recent exact solutions with a controlled expansion in the system size, we analyze quench dynamics in Ising models with power-law (1/r α ) interactions in D dimensions, thereby expanding the understanding of spin squeezing into a broad and experimentally relevant context. In spatially homogeneous systems, we show that for small α the scaling of squeezing with system size is identical to the infinite-range (α = 0) case. This indifference to the interaction range persists up to a critical value α = 2D/3, above which squeezing degrades continuously. Boundaryinduced inhomogeneities present in most experimental systems modify this picture, but it nevertheless remains qualitatively correct for finite-sized systems.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.07805}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Charles W. Clark} } @article {1695, title = {Kaleidoscope of quantum phases in a long-range interacting spin-1 chain}, journal = {Physical Review B}, volume = {93}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/05/11}, pages = {205115}, abstract = {Motivated by recent trapped-ion quantum simulation experiments, we carry out a comprehensive study of the phase diagram of a spin-1 chain with XXZ-type interactions that decay as 1/rα, using a combination of finite and infinite-size DMRG calculations, spin-wave analysis, and field theory. In the absence of long-range interactions, varying the spin-coupling anisotropy leads to four distinct phases: a ferromagnetic Ising phase, a disordered XY phase, a topological Haldane phase, and an antiferromagnetic Ising phase. If long-range interactions are antiferromagnetic and thus frustrated, we find primarily a quantitative change of the phase boundaries. On the other hand, ferromagnetic (non-frustrated) long-range interactions qualitatively impact the entire phase diagram. Importantly, for α≲3, long-range interactions destroy the Haldane phase, break the conformal symmetry of the XY phase, give rise to a new phase that spontaneously breaks a U(1) continuous symmetry, and introduce an exotic tricritical point with no direct parallel in short-range interacting spin chains. We show that the main signatures of all five phases found could be observed experimentally in the near future. }, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.205115}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.02108}, author = {Zhe-Xuan Gong and Mohammad F. Maghrebi and Anzi Hu and Michael Foss-Feig and Philip Richerme and Christopher Monroe and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1907, title = {Steady-state superradiance with Rydberg polaritons}, journal = {arXiv:1611.00797}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/11/02}, abstract = {

A steady-state superradiant laser can be used to generate ultranarrow-linewidth light, and thus has important applications in the fields of quantum information and precision metrology. However, the light produced by such a laser is still essentially classical. Here, we show that the introduction of a Rydberg medium into a cavity containing atoms with a narrow optical transition can lead to the steady-state superradiant emission of ultranarrow-linewidth\ nonclassical\ light. The cavity nonlinearity induced by the Rydberg medium strongly modifies the superradiance threshold, and leads to a Mollow triplet in the cavity output spectrum\−this behavior can be understood as an unusual analogue of resonance fluorescence. The cavity output spectrum has an extremely sharp central peak, with a linewidth that can be far narrower than that of a classical superradiant laser. This unprecedented spectral sharpness, together with the nonclassical nature of the light, could lead to new applications in which spectrally pure\ quantum\ light is desired.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.00797}, author = {Zhe-Xuan Gong and Minghui Xu and Michael Foss-Feig and James K. Thompson and Ana Maria Rey and Murray Holland and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1191, title = {Topological phases with long-range interactions}, journal = {Physical Review B}, volume = {93}, year = {2016}, month = {2016/01/08}, pages = {041102}, abstract = { Topological phases of matter are primarily studied in quantum many-body systems with short-range interactions. Whether various topological phases can survive in the presence of long-range interactions, however, is largely unknown. Here we show that a paradigmatic example of a symmetry-protected topological phase, the Haldane phase of an antiferromagnetic spin-1 chain, surprisingly remains intact in the presence of arbitrarily slowly decaying power-law interactions. The influence of long-range interactions on the topological order is largely quantitative, and we expect similar results for more general systems. Our conclusions are based on large-scale matrix-product-state simulations and two complementary effective-field-theory calculations. The striking agreement between the numerical and analytical results rules out finite-size effects. The topological phase considered here should be experimentally observable in a recently developed trapped-ion quantum simulator. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.93.041102}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.03146}, author = {Zhe-Xuan Gong and Mohammad F. Maghrebi and Anzi Hu and Michael L. Wall and Michael Foss-Feig and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1472, title = {2D Superexchange mediated magnetization dynamics in an optical lattice}, journal = {Science}, volume = {348}, year = {2015}, month = {2015/04/30}, pages = {540 - 544}, abstract = { The competition of magnetic exchange interactions and tunneling underlies many complex quantum phenomena observed in real materials. We study non-equilibrium magnetization dynamics in an extended 2D system by loading effective spin-1/2 bosons into a spin-dependent optical lattice, and we use the lattice to separately control the resonance conditions for tunneling and superexchange. After preparing a non-equilibrium anti-ferromagnetically ordered state, we observe relaxation dynamics governed by two well-separated rates, which scale with the underlying Hamiltonian parameters associated with superexchange and tunneling. Remarkably, with tunneling off-resonantly suppressed, we are able to observe superexchange dominated dynamics over two orders of magnitude in magnetic coupling strength, despite the presence of vacancies. In this regime, the measured timescales are in agreement with simple theoretical estimates, but the detailed dynamics of this 2D, strongly correlated, and far-from-equilibrium quantum system remain out of reach of current computational techniques. }, doi = {10.1126/science.aaa1385}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.7036v1}, author = {R. C. Brown and R. Wyllie and S. B. Koller and E. A. Goldschmidt and Michael Foss-Feig and J. V. Porto} } @article {1473, title = {Entangling two transportable neutral atoms via local spin exchange}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {527}, year = {2015}, month = {2015/11/02}, pages = {208-211}, abstract = { To advance quantum information science a constant pursuit is the search for physical systems that meet the stringent requirements for creating and preserving quantum entanglement. In atomic physics, robust two-qubit entanglement is typically achieved by strong, long-range interactions in the form of Coulomb interactions between ions or dipolar interactions between Rydberg atoms. While these interactions allow fast gates, atoms subject to these interactions must overcome the associated coupling to the environment and cross-talk among qubits. Local interactions, such as those requiring significant wavefunction overlap, can alleviate these detrimental effects yet present a new challenge: To distribute entanglement, qubits must be transported, merged for interaction, and then isolated for storage and subsequent operations. Here we show how, via a mobile optical tweezer, it is possible to prepare and locally entangle two ultracold neutral atoms, and then separate them while preserving their entanglement. While ultracold neutral atom experiments have measured dynamics consistent with spin entanglement, we are now able to demonstrate two-particle coherence via application of a local gradient and parity measurements; this new entanglement-verification protocol could be applied to arbitrary spin-entangled states of spatially-separated atoms. The local entangling operation is achieved via ultracold spin-exchange interactions, and quantum tunneling is used to combine and separate atoms. Our toolset provides a framework for dynamically entangling remote qubits via local operations within a large-scale quantum register. }, doi = {10.1038/nature16073}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.05586}, author = {A. M. Kaufman and B. J. Lester and Michael Foss-Feig and M. L. Wall and A. M. Rey and C. A. Regal} } @article {1178, title = {Nearly-linear light cones in long-range interacting quantum systems}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {114}, year = {2015}, month = {2015/04/13}, pages = {157201}, abstract = { In non-relativistic quantum theories with short-range Hamiltonians, a velocity $v$ can be chosen such that the influence of any local perturbation is approximately confined to within a distance $r$ until a time $t \sim r/v$, thereby defining a linear light cone and giving rise to an emergent notion of locality. In systems with power-law ($1/r^{\alpha}$) interactions, when $\alpha$ exceeds the dimension $D$, an analogous bound confines influences to within a distance $r$ only until a time $t\sim(\alpha/v)\log r$, suggesting that the velocity, as calculated from the slope of the light cone, may grow exponentially in time. We rule out this possibility; light cones of power-law interacting systems are algebraic for $\alpha>2D$, becoming linear as $\alpha\rightarrow\infty$. Our results impose strong new constraints on the growth of correlations and the production of entangled states in a variety of rapidly emerging, long-range interacting atomic, molecular, and optical systems. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.157201}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.3466v1}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Charles W. Clark and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1477, title = {Hong-Ou-Mandel atom interferometry in tunnel-coupled optical tweezers}, journal = {Science}, volume = {345}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/06/26}, pages = {306 - 309}, abstract = { The quantum statistics of atoms is typically observed in the behavior of an ensemble via macroscopic observables. However, quantum statistics modifies the behavior of even two particles, inducing remarkable consequences that are at the heart of quantum science. Here we demonstrate near-complete control over all the internal and external degrees of freedom of two laser-cooled 87Rb atoms trapped in two optical tweezers. This full controllability allows us to implement a massive-particle analog of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer where atom tunneling plays the role of a photon beamsplitter. We use the interferometer to probe the effect of quantum statistics on the two-atom dynamics under tunable initial conditions, chosen to adjust the degree of atomic indistinguishability. Our work thereby establishes laser-cooled atoms in optical tweezers as a new route to bottom-up engineering of scalable, low-entropy quantum systems. }, doi = {10.1126/science.1250057}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.7182v2}, author = {A. M. Kaufman and B. J. Lester and C. M. Reynolds and M. L. Wall and Michael Foss-Feig and K. R. A. Hazzard and A. M. Rey and C. A. Regal} } @article {1480, title = {Many-body dynamics of dipolar molecules in an optical lattice}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {113}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/11/7}, abstract = { Understanding the many-body dynamics of isolated quantum systems is one of the central challenges in modern physics. To this end, the direct experimental realization of strongly correlated quantum systems allows one to gain insights into the emergence of complex phenomena. Such insights enable the development of theoretical tools that broaden our understanding. Here, we theoretically model and experimentally probe with Ramsey spectroscopy the quantum dynamics of disordered, dipolar-interacting, ultracold molecules in a partially filled optical lattice. We report the capability to control the dipolar interaction strength, and we demonstrate that the many-body dynamics extends well beyond a nearest-neighbor or mean-field picture, and cannot be quantitatively described using previously available theoretical tools. We develop a novel cluster expansion technique and demonstrate that our theoretical method accurately captures the measured dependence of the spin dynamics on molecule number and on the dipolar interaction strength. In the spirit of quantum simulation, this agreement simultaneously benchmarks the new theoretical method and verifies our microscopic understanding of the experiment. Our findings pave the way for numerous applications in quantum information science, metrology, and condensed matter physics. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.195302}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.2354v1}, author = {Kaden R. A. Hazzard and Bryce Gadway and Michael Foss-Feig and Bo Yan and Steven A. Moses and Jacob P. Covey and Norman Y. Yao and Mikhail D. Lukin and Jun Ye and Deborah S. Jin and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1202, title = {Non-local propagation of correlations in long-range interacting quantum systems }, journal = {Nature}, volume = {511}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/7/9}, pages = {198 - 201}, abstract = { The maximum speed with which information can propagate in a quantum many-body system directly affects how quickly disparate parts of the system can become correlated and how difficult the system will be to describe numerically. For systems with only short-range interactions, Lieb and Robinson derived a constant-velocity bound that limits correlations to within a linear effective light cone. However, little is known about the propagation speed in systems with long-range interactions, since the best long-range bound is too loose to give the correct light-cone shape for any known spin model and since analytic solutions rarely exist. In this work, we experimentally determine the spatial and time-dependent correlations of a far-from-equilibrium quantum many-body system evolving under a long-range Ising- or XY-model Hamiltonian. For several different interaction ranges, we extract the shape of the light cone and measure the velocity with which correlations propagate through the system. In many cases we find increasing propagation velocities, which violate the Lieb-Robinson prediction, and in one instance cannot be explained by any existing theory. Our results demonstrate that even modestly-sized quantum simulators are well-poised for studying complicated many-body systems that are intractable to classical computation. }, doi = {10.1038/nature13450}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.5088v1}, author = {Philip Richerme and Zhe-Xuan Gong and Aaron Lee and Crystal Senko and Jacob Smith and Michael Foss-Feig and Spyridon Michalakis and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Christopher Monroe} } @article {1176, title = {Persistence of locality in systems with power-law interactions}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {113}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/7/16}, abstract = { Motivated by recent experiments with ultra-cold matter, we derive a new bound on the propagation of information in $D$-dimensional lattice models exhibiting $1/r^{\alpha}$ interactions with $\alpha>D$. The bound contains two terms: One accounts for the short-ranged part of the interactions, giving rise to a bounded velocity and reflecting the persistence of locality out to intermediate distances, while the other contributes a power-law decay at longer distances. We demonstrate that these two contributions not only bound but, except at long times, \emph{qualitatively reproduce} the short- and long-distance dynamical behavior following a local quench in an $XY$ chain and a transverse-field Ising chain. In addition to describing dynamics in numerous intractable long-range interacting lattice models, our results can be experimentally verified in a variety of ultracold-atomic and solid-state systems. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.030602}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.6174v2}, author = {Zhe-Xuan Gong and Michael Foss-Feig and Spyridon Michalakis and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {1478, title = {Quantum correlations and entanglement in far-from-equilibrium spin systems }, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {90}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/12/15}, abstract = { By applying complementary analytic and numerical methods, we investigate the dynamics of spin-$1/2$ XXZ models with variable-range interactions in arbitrary dimensions. The dynamics we consider is initiated from uncorrelated states that are easily prepared in experiments, and can be equivalently viewed as either Ramsey spectroscopy or a quantum quench. Our primary focus is the dynamical emergence of correlations and entanglement in these far-from-equilibrium interacting quantum systems: we characterize these correlations by the entanglement entropy, concurrence, and squeezing, which are inequivalent measures of entanglement corresponding to different quantum resources. In one spatial dimension, we show that the time evolution of correlation functions manifests a non-perturbative dynamic singularity. This singularity is characterized by a universal power-law exponent that is insensitive to small perturbations. Explicit realizations of these models in current experiments using polar molecules, trapped ions, Rydberg atoms, magnetic atoms, and alkaline-earth and alkali atoms in optical lattices, along with the relative merits and limitations of these different systems, are discussed. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.90.063622}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.0937v1}, author = {Kaden R. A. Hazzard and Mauritz van den Worm and Michael Foss-Feig and Salvatore R. Manmana and Emanuele Dalla Torre and Tilman Pfau and Michael Kastner and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1479, title = {Suppressing the loss of ultracold molecules via the continuous quantum Zeno effect }, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {112}, year = {2014}, month = {2014/2/20}, abstract = { We investigate theoretically the suppression of two-body losses when the on-site loss rate is larger than all other energy scales in a lattice. This work quantitatively explains the recently observed suppression of chemical reactions between two rotational states of fermionic KRb molecules confined in one-dimensional tubes with a weak lattice along the tubes [Yan et al., Nature 501, 521-525 (2013)]. New loss rate measurements performed for different lattice parameters but under controlled initial conditions allow us to show that the loss suppression is a consequence of the combined effects of lattice confinement and the continuous quantum Zeno effect. A key finding, relevant for generic strongly reactive systems, is that while a single-band theory can qualitatively describe the data, a quantitative analysis must include multiband effects. Accounting for these effects reduces the inferred molecule filling fraction by a factor of five. A rate equation can describe much of the data, but to properly reproduce the loss dynamics with a fixed filling fraction for all lattice parameters we develop a mean-field model and benchmark it with numerically exact time-dependent density matrix renormalization group calculations. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.070404}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.2221v2}, author = {Bihui Zhu and Bryce Gadway and Michael Foss-Feig and Johannes Schachenmayer and Michael Wall and Kaden R. A. Hazzard and Bo Yan and Steven A. Moses and Jacob P. Covey and Deborah S. Jin and Jun Ye and Murray Holland and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1475, title = {Dynamical quantum correlations of Ising models on an arbitrary lattice and their resilience to decoherence }, journal = {New Journal of Physics}, volume = {15}, year = {2013}, month = {2013/11/07}, pages = {113008}, abstract = { Ising models, and the physical systems described by them, play a central role in generating entangled states for use in quantum metrology and quantum information. In particular, ultracold atomic gases, trapped ion systems, and Rydberg atoms realize long-ranged Ising models, which even in the absence of a transverse field can give rise to highly non-classical dynamics and long-range quantum correlations. In the first part of this paper, we present a detailed theoretical framework for studying the dynamics of such systems driven (at time t=0) into arbitrary unentangled non-equilibrium states, thus greatly extending and unifying the work of Ref. [1]. Specifically, we derive exact expressions for closed-time-path ordered correlation functions, and use these to study experimentally relevant observables, e.g. Bloch vector and spin-squeezing dynamics. In the second part, these correlation functions are then used to derive closed-form expressions for the dynamics of arbitrary spin-spin correlation functions in the presence of both T_1 (spontaneous spin relaxation/excitation) and T_2 (dephasing) type decoherence processes. Even though the decoherence is local, our solution reveals that the competition between Ising dynamics and T_1 decoherence gives rise to an emergent non-local dephasing effect, thereby drastically amplifying the degradation of quantum correlations. In addition to identifying the mechanism of this deleterious effect, our solution points toward a scheme to eliminate it via measurement-based coherent feedback. }, doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/15/11/113008}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0172v1}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Kaden R A Hazzard and John J Bollinger and Ana Maria Rey and Charles W Clark} } @article {1474, title = {Far from equilibrium quantum magnetism with ultracold polar molecules}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {110}, year = {2013}, month = {2013/2/11}, abstract = { Recent theory has indicated how to emulate tunable models of quantum magnetism with ultracold polar molecules. Here we show that present molecule optical lattice experiments can accomplish three crucial goals for quantum emulation, despite currently being well below unit filling and not quantum degenerate. The first is to verify and benchmark the models proposed to describe these systems. The second is to prepare correlated and possibly useful states in well-understood regimes. The third is to explore many-body physics inaccessible to existing theoretical techniques. Our proposal relies on a non-equilibrium protocol that can be viewed either as Ramsey spectroscopy or an interaction quench. It uses only routine experimental tools available in any ultracold molecule experiment. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.075301}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1209.4076v1}, author = {Kaden R. A. Hazzard and Salvatore R. Manmana and Michael Foss-Feig and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1471, title = {Non-equilibrium dynamics of Ising models with decoherence: an exact solution }, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {87}, year = {2013}, month = {2013/4/3}, abstract = { The interplay between interactions and decoherence in many-body systems is of fundamental importance in quantum physics: Decoherence can degrade correlations, but can also give rise to a variety of rich dynamical and steady-state behaviors. We obtain an exact analytic solution for the non-equilibrium dynamics of Ising models with arbitrary interactions and subject to the most general form of local Markovian decoherence. Our solution shows that decoherence affects the relaxation of observables more than predicted by single-particle considerations. It also reveals a dynamical phase transition, specifically a Hopf bifurcation, which is absent at the single-particle level. These calculations are applicable to ongoing quantum information and emulation efforts using a variety of atomic, molecular, optical, and solid-state systems. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.87.042101}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1209.5795v2}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Kaden R. A. Hazzard and John J. Bollinger and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1476, title = {Long-lived dipolar molecules and Feshbach molecules in a 3D optical lattice }, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {108}, year = {2012}, month = {2012/2/23}, abstract = { We have realized long-lived ground-state polar molecules in a 3D optical lattice, with a lifetime of up to 25 s, which is limited only by off-resonant scattering of the trapping light. Starting from a 2D optical lattice, we observe that the lifetime increases dramatically as a small lattice potential is added along the tube-shaped lattice traps. The 3D optical lattice also dramatically increases the lifetime for weakly bound Feshbach molecules. For a pure gas of Feshbach molecules, we observe a lifetime of >20 s in a 3D optical lattice; this represents a 100-fold improvement over previous results. This lifetime is also limited by off-resonant scattering, the rate of which is related to the size of the Feshbach molecule. Individually trapped Feshbach molecules in the 3D lattice can be converted to pairs of K and Rb atoms and back with nearly 100\% efficiency. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.080405}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.4420v1}, author = {Amodsen Chotia and Brian Neyenhuis and Steven A. Moses and Bo Yan and Jacob P. Covey and Michael Foss-Feig and Ana Maria Rey and Deborah S. Jin and Jun Ye} } @article {1470, title = {Steady-state many-body entanglement of hot reactive fermions}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {109}, year = {2012}, month = {2012/12/4}, abstract = { Entanglement is typically created via systematic intervention in the time evolution of an initially unentangled state, which can be achieved by coherent control, carefully tailored non-demolition measurements, or dissipation in the presence of properly engineered reservoirs. In this paper we show that two-component Fermi gases at ~\mu K temperatures naturally evolve, in the presence of reactive two-body collisions, into states with highly entangled (Dicke-type) spin wavefunctions. The entanglement is a steady-state property that emerges---without any intervention---from uncorrelated initial states, and could be used to improve the accuracy of spectroscopy in experiments with fermionic alkaline earth atoms or fermionic groundstate molecules. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.230501}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.4741v1}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Andrew J. Daley and James K. Thompson and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1467, title = {Phase diagram of the Bose Kondo-Hubbard model}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {84}, year = {2011}, month = {2011/11/16}, abstract = { We study a bosonic version of the Kondo lattice model with an on-site repulsion in the conduction band, implemented with alkali atoms in two bands of an optical lattice. Using both weak and strong-coupling perturbation theory, we find that at unit filling of the conduction bosons the superfluid to Mott insulator transition should be accompanied by a magnetic transition from a ferromagnet (in the superfluid) to a paramagnet (in the Mott insulator). Furthermore, an analytic treatment of Gutzwiller mean-field theory reveals that quantum spin fluctuations induced by the Kondo exchange cause the otherwise continuous superfluid to Mott-insulator phase transition to be first order. We show that lattice separability imposes a serious constraint on proposals to exploit excited bands for quantum simulations, and discuss a way to overcome this constraint in the context of our model by using an experimentally realized non-separable lattice. A method to probe the first-order nature of the transition based on collapses and revivals of the matter-wave field is also discussed. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.84.053619}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.0245v2}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1469, title = {Heavy fermions in an optical lattice}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {82}, year = {2010}, month = {2010/11/22}, abstract = { We employ a mean-field theory to study ground-state properties and transport of a two-dimensional gas of ultracold alklaline-earth metal atoms governed by the Kondo Lattice Hamiltonian plus a parabolic confining potential. In a homogenous system this mean-field theory is believed to give a qualitatively correct description of heavy fermion metals and Kondo insulators: it reproduces the Kondo-like scaling of the quasiparticle mass in the former, and the same scaling of the excitation gap in the latter. In order to understand ground-state properties in a trap we extend this mean-field theory via local-density approximation. We find that the Kondo insulator gap manifests as a shell structure in the trapped density profile. In addition, a strong signature of the large Fermi surface expected for heavy fermion systems survives the confinement, and could be probed in time-of-flight experiments. From a full self-consistent diagonalization of the mean-field theory we are able to study dynamics in the trap. We find that the mass enhancement of quasiparticle excitations in the heavy Fermi liquid phase manifests as slowing of the dipole oscillations that result from a sudden displacement of the trap center. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.82.053624}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.5083v1}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Michael Hermele and Victor Gurarie and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1468, title = {Probing the Kondo Lattice Model with Alkaline Earth Atoms}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {81}, year = {2010}, month = {2010/5/7}, abstract = { We study transport properties of alkaline-earth atoms governed by the Kondo Lattice Hamiltonian plus a harmonic confining potential, and suggest simple dynamical probes of several different regimes of the phase diagram that can be implemented with current experimental techniques. In particular, we show how Kondo physics at strong coupling, low density, and in the heavy fermion phase is manifest in the dipole oscillations of the conduction band upon displacement of the trap center. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.81.051603}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.4762v1}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Michael Hermele and Ana Maria Rey} } @article {1466, title = {Geometric-Phase-Effect Tunnel-Splitting Oscillations in Single-Molecule Magnets with Fourth-Order Anisotropy Induced by Orthorhombic Distortion }, journal = {EPL (Europhysics Letters)}, volume = {86}, year = {2009}, month = {2009/04/30}, pages = {27002}, abstract = { We analyze the interference between tunneling paths that occurs for a spin system with both fourth-order and second-order transverse anisotropy. Using an instanton approach, we find that as the strength of the second-order transverse anisotropy is increased, the tunnel splitting is modulated, with zeros occurring periodically. This effect results from the interference of four tunneling paths connecting easy-axis spin orientations and occurs in the absence of any magnetic field. }, doi = {10.1209/0295-5075/86/27002}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.2289v2}, author = {Michael Foss-Feig and Jonathan R. Friedman} }