@article {3505, title = {Ultrastrong light-matter interaction in a multimode photonic crystal}, year = {2024}, month = {2/21/2024}, abstract = {

Harnessing the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level has been a central theme in atomic physics and quantum optics, with applications from quantum computation to quantum metrology. Combining complex interactions with photonic synthetic materials provides an opportunity to investigate novel quantum phases and phenomena, establishing interesting connections to condensed matter physics. Here we explore many-body phenomena with a single artificial atom coupled to the many discrete modes of a photonic crystal. This experiment reaches the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime using the circuit quantum electrodynamics paradigm, by galvanically coupling a highly nonlinear fluxonium qubit to a tight-binding lattice of microwave resonators. In this regime, the transport of a single photon becomes a many-body problem, owing to the strong participation of multi-photon bound states arising from interactions that break particle number conservation. Exploiting the effective photon-photon interactions mediated by the qubit, the transport of multiple photons leads to complex multimode dynamics that can be employed for generating a continuous reservoir of strongly-correlated photons, an important resource for quantum networks. This work opens exciting prospects for exploring nonlinear quantum optics at the single-photon level and stabilizing entangled many-body phases of light.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.14972}, author = {Andrei Vrajitoarea and Ron Belyansky and Rex Lundgren and Seth Whitsitt and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Andrew A. Houck} } @article {2817, title = {Decoding conformal field theories: from supervised to unsupervised learning}, year = {2021}, month = {7/10/2021}, abstract = {

We use machine learning to classify rational two-dimensional conformal field theories. We first use the energy spectra of these minimal models to train a supervised learning algorithm. We find that the machine is able to correctly predict the nature and the value of critical points of several strongly correlated spin models using only their energy spectra. This is in contrast to previous works that use machine learning to classify different phases of matter, but do not reveal the nature of the critical point between phases. Given that the ground-state entanglement Hamiltonian of certain topological phases of matter is also described by conformal field theories, we use supervised learning on R{\'e}yni entropies and find that the machine is able to identify which conformal field theory describes the entanglement Hamiltonian with only the lowest few R{\'e}yni entropies to a high degree of accuracy. Finally, using autoencoders, an unsupervised learning algorithm, we find a hidden variable that has a direct correlation with the central charge and discuss prospects for using machine learning to investigate other conformal field theories, including higher-dimensional ones. Our results highlight that machine learning can be used to find and characterize critical points and also hint at the intriguing possibility to use machine learning to learn about more complex conformal field theories.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.13485}, author = {En-Jui Kuo and Alireza Seif and Rex Lundgren and Seth Whitsitt and Mohammad Hafezi} } @article {2762, title = {Frustration-induced anomalous transport and strong photon decay in waveguide QED}, journal = {Phys. Rev. Research}, volume = {3}, year = {2021}, month = {9/16/2021}, abstract = {

We study the propagation of photons in a one-dimensional environment consisting of two non-interacting species of photons frustratingly coupled to a single spin-1/2. The ultrastrong frustrated coupling leads to an extreme mixing of the light and matter degrees of freedom, resulting in the disintegration of the spin and a breakdown of the \"dressed-spin\", or polaron, description. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods, we show that the elastic response becomes increasingly weak at the effective spin frequency, showing instead an increasingly strong and broadband response at higher energies. We also show that the photons can decay into multiple photons of smaller energies. The total probability of these inelastic processes can be as large as the total elastic scattering rate, or half of the total scattering rate, which is as large as it can be. The frustrated spin induces strong anisotropic photon-photon interactions that are dominated by inter-species interactions. Our results are relevant to state-of-the-art circuit and cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L032058}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03690}, author = {Ron Belyansky and Seth Whitsitt and Rex Lundgren and Yidan Wang and Andrei Vrajitoarea and Andrew A. Houck and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2364, title = {Circuit Complexity across a Topological Phase Transition}, journal = {Physical Review Research }, volume = {2}, year = {2020}, month = {03/16/2020}, pages = {013323}, abstract = {

We use Nielsen\&$\#$39;s approach to quantify the circuit complexity in the one-dimensional Kitaev model. In equilibrium, we find that the circuit complexity of ground states exhibits a divergent derivative at the critical point, signaling the presence of a topological phase transition. Out of equilibrium, we study the complexity dynamics after a sudden quench, and find that the steady-state complexity exhibits nonanalytical behavior when quenched across critical points. We generalize our results to the long-range interacting case, and demonstrate that the circuit complexity correctly predicts the critical point between regions with different semi-integer topological numbers. Our results establish a connection between circuit complexity and quantum phase transitions both in and out of equilibrium, and can be easily generalized to topological phase transitions in higher dimensions. Our study opens a new avenue to using circuit complexity as a novel quantity to understand many-body systems.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.013323}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10720}, author = {Fangli Liu and Rex Lundgren and Paraj Titum and James R. Garrison and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2636, title = {Realizing and Probing Baryonic Excitations in Rydberg Atom Arrays}, year = {2020}, month = {7/14/2020}, abstract = {

We propose a realization of mesonic and baryonic quasiparticle excitations in Rydberg atom arrays with programmable interactions. Recent experiments have shown that such systems possess a Z3-ordered crystalline phase whose low-energy quasiparticles are defects in the crystalline order. By engineering a Z3-translational-symmetry breaking field on top of the Rydberg-blockaded Hamiltonian, we show that different types of defects experience confinement, and as a consequence form mesonic or baryonic quasiparticle excitations. We illustrate the formation of these quasiparticles by studying a quantum chiral clock model related to the Rydberg Hamiltonian. We then propose an experimental protocol involving out-of-equilibrium dynamics to directly probe the spectrum of the confined excitations. We show that the confined quasiparticle spectrum can limit quantum information spreading in this system. This proposal is readily applicable to current Rydberg experiments, and the method can be easily generalized to more complex confined excitations (e.g. {\textquoteleft}tetraquarks\&$\#$39;, {\textquoteleft}pentaquarks\&$\#$39;) in phases with Zq order for q\>3.\ 

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.07258}, author = {Fangli Liu and Seth Whitsitt and Przemyslaw Bienias and Rex Lundgren and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2690, title = {Symmetry breaking and error correction in open quantum systems}, journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett. }, volume = {125}, year = {2020}, month = {8/6/2020}, pages = {240405}, abstract = {

Symmetry-breaking transitions are a well-understood phenomenon of closed quantum systems in quantum optics, condensed matter, and high energy physics. However, symmetry breaking in open systems is less thoroughly understood, in part due to the richer steady-state and symmetry structure that such systems possess. For the prototypical open system---a Lindbladian---a unitary symmetry can be imposed in a \"weak\" or a \"strong\" way. We characterize the possible Zn symmetry breaking transitions for both cases. In the case of Z2, a weak-symmetry-broken phase guarantees at most a classical bit steady-state structure, while a strong-symmetry-broken phase admits a partially-protected steady-state qubit. Viewing photonic cat qubits through the lens of strong-symmetry breaking, we show how to dynamically recover the logical information after any gap-preserving strong-symmetric error; such recovery becomes perfect exponentially quickly in the number of photons. Our study forges a connection between driven-dissipative phase transitions and error correctio

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.240405}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.02816}, author = {Simon Lieu and Ron Belyansky and Jeremy T. Young and Rex Lundgren and Victor V. Albert and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2609, title = {Transport and dynamics in the frustrated two-bath spin-boson model}, year = {2020}, month = {7/7/2020}, abstract = {

We study the strong coupling dynamics as well as transport properties of photons in the two-bath spin-boson model, in which a spin-1/2 particle is frustratingly coupled to two independent Ohmic bosonic baths. Using a combination of numerical and analytical methods, we show that the frustration in this model gives rise to rich physics in a very wide range of energies. This is in contrast to the one-bath spin-boson model, where the non-trivial physics occurs at an energy scale close to the renormalized spin frequency. The renormalized spin frequency in the two-bath spin-boson model is still important, featuring in different observables, including the non-equiblirum dynamics of both the spin and the baths along with the elastic transport properties of a photon. The latter however reveals a much more complex structure. The elastic scattering displays non-monotonic behavior at high frequencies, and is very different in the two channels: intra- and inter-bath scattering. The photon can also be inelastically scattered, a process in which it is split into several photons of smaller energies. We show that such inelastic processes are highly anisotropic, with the outgoing particles being preferentially emitted into only one of the baths. Moreover, the inelastic scattering rate is parameterically larger than in the one-bath case, and can even exceed the total elastic rate. Our results can be verified with state-of-the-art circuit and cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments.\ 

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.03690}, author = {Ron Belyansky and Seth Whitsitt and Rex Lundgren and Yidan Wang and Andrei Vrajitoarea and Andrew A. Houck and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2264, title = {Confined Dynamics in Long-Range Interacting Quantum Spin Chains}, journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.}, volume = {122 }, year = {2019}, month = {04/17/2019}, abstract = {

We study the quasiparticle excitation and quench dynamics of the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model with power-law (1/rα) interactions. We find that long-range interactions give rise to a confining potential, which couples pairs of domain walls (kinks) into bound quasiparticles, analogous to mesonic bound states in high-energy physics. We show that these bound states have dramatic consequences for the non-equilibrium dynamics following a global quantum quench, such as suppressed spreading of quantum information and oscillations of order parameters. The masses of these bound states can be read out from the Fourier spectrum of these oscillating order parameters. We then use a two-kink model to qualitatively explain the phenomenon of long-range-interaction-induced confinement. The masses of the bound states predicted by this model are in good quantitative agreement with exact diagonalization results. Moreover, we illustrate that these bound states lead to weak thermalization of local observables for initial states with energy near the bottom of the many-body energy spectrum. Our work is readily applicable to current trapped-ion experiments.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.150601}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.02365}, author = {Fangli Liu and Rex Lundgren and Paraj Titum and Guido Pagano and Jiehang Zhang and Christopher Monroe and Alexey V. Gorshkov} } @article {2143, title = {Interacting Qubit-Photon Bound States with Superconducting Circuits}, journal = {Phys. Rev. }, volume = {X 9}, year = {2019}, month = {2018/01/30}, abstract = {

Qubits strongly coupled to a photonic crystal give rise to many exotic physical scenarios, beginning with single and multi-excitation qubit-photon dressed bound states comprising induced spatially localized photonic modes, centered around the qubits, and the qubits themselves. The localization of these states changes with qubit detuning from the band-edge, offering an avenue of in situ control of bound state interaction. Here, we present experimental results from a device with two qubits coupled to a superconducting microwave photonic crystal and realize tunable on-site and inter-bound state interactions. We observe a fourth-order two photon virtual process between bound states indicating strong coupling between the photonic crystal and qubits. Due to their localization-dependent interaction, these states offer the ability to create one-dimensional chains of bound states with tunable and potentially long-range interactions that preserve the qubits\&$\#$39; spatial organization, a key criterion for realization of certain quantum many-body models. The widely tunable, strong and robust interactions demonstrated with this system are promising benchmarks towards realizing larger, more complex systems of bound states.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.011021}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1801.10167}, author = {Neereja M. Sundaresan and Rex Lundgren and Guanyu Zhu and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Andrew A. Houck} } @article {2465, title = {Momentum-space entanglement after a quench in one-dimensional disordered fermionic systems}, year = {2019}, month = {9/11/2019}, abstract = {

We numerically investigate the momentum-space entanglement entropy and entanglement spectrum of the random-dimer model and its generalizations, which circumvent Anderson localization, after a quench in the Hamiltonian parameters. The type of dynamics that occurs depends on whether or not the Fermi level of the initial state is near the energy of the delocalized states present in these models. If the Fermi level of the initial state is near the energy of the delocalized states, we observe an interesting slow logarithmic-like growth of the momentum-space entanglement entropy followed by an eventual saturation. Otherwise, the momentum-space entanglement entropy is found to rapidly saturate. We also find that the momentum-space entanglement spectrum reveals the presence of delocalized states in these models for long times after the quench and the many-body entanglement gap decays logarithmically in time when the Fermi level is near the energy of the delocalized states.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.05140}, author = {Rex Lundgren and Fangli Liu and Pontus Laurell and Gregory A. Fiete} } @article {2496, title = {On the nature of the non-equilibrium phase transition in the non-Markovian driven Dicke model}, year = {2019}, month = {2019/10/9}, abstract = {

The Dicke model famously exhibits a phase transition to a superradiant phase with a macroscopic population of photons and is realized in multiple settings in open quantum systems. In this work, we study a variant of the Dicke model where the cavity mode is lossy due to the coupling to a Markovian environment while the atomic mode is coupled to a colored bath. We analytically investigate this model by inspecting its low-frequency behavior via the Schwinger-Keldysh field theory and carefully examine the nature of the corresponding superradiant phase transition. Integrating out the fast modes, we can identify a simple effective theory allowing us to derive analytical expressions for various critical exponents, including those, such as the dynamical critical exponent, that have not been previously considered. We find excellent agreement with previous numerical results when the non-Markovian bath is at zero temperature; however, contrary to these studies, our low-frequency approach reveals that the same exponents govern the critical behavior when the colored bath is at finite temperature unless the chemical potential is zero. Furthermore, we show that the superradiant phase transition is classical in nature, while it is genuinely non-equilibrium. We derive a fractional Langevin equation and conjecture the associated fractional Fokker-Planck equation that capture the system\&$\#$39;s long-time memory as well as its non-equilibrium behavior. Finally, we consider finite-size effects at the phase transition and identify the finite-size scaling exponents, unlocking a rich behavior in both statics and dynamics of the photonic and atomic observables.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.04319}, author = {Rex Lundgren and Alexey V. Gorshkov and Mohammad F. Maghrebi} } @article {2256, title = {Fractional quantum Hall phases of bosons with tunable interactions: From the Laughlin liquid to a fractional Wigner crystal}, year = {2018}, abstract = {

Highly tunable platforms for realizing topological phases of matter are emerging from atomic and photonic systems, and offer the prospect of designing interactions between particles. The shape of the potential, besides playing an important role in the competition between different fractional quantum Hall phases, can also trigger the transition to symmetry-broken phases, or even to phases where topological and symmetry-breaking order coexist. Here, we explore the phase diagram of an interacting bosonic model in the lowest Landau level at half-filling as two-body interactions are tuned. Apart from the well-known Laughlin liquid, Wigner crystal phase, stripe, and bubble phases, we also find evidence of a phase that exhibits crystalline order at fractional filling per crystal site. The Laughlin liquid transits into this phase when pairs of bosons strongly repel each other at relative angular momentum 4ℏ. We show that such interactions can be achieved by dressing ground-state cold atoms with multiple different-parity Rydberg states.

}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.04493}, author = {Tobias Gra{\ss} and Przemyslaw Bienias and Michael Gullans and Rex Lundgren and Joseph Maciejko and Alexey V. Gorshkov} }