TY - JOUR T1 - Improved Digital Quantum Simulation by Non-Unitary Channels Y1 - 2023 A1 - W. Gong A1 - Yaroslav Kharkov A1 - Minh C. Tran A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Simulating quantum systems is one of the most promising avenues to harness the computational power of quantum computers. However, hardware errors in noisy near-term devices remain a major obstacle for applications. Ideas based on the randomization of Suzuki-Trotter product formulas have been shown to be a powerful approach to reducing the errors of quantum simulation and lowering the gate count. In this paper, we study the performance of non-unitary simulation channels and consider the error structure of channels constructed from a weighted average of unitary circuits. We show that averaging over just a few simulation circuits can significantly reduce the Trotterization error for both single-step short-time and multi-step long-time simulations. We focus our analysis on two approaches for constructing circuit ensembles for averaging: (i) permuting the order of the terms in the Hamiltonian and (ii) applying a set of global symmetry transformations. We compare our analytical error bounds to empirical performance and show that empirical error reduction surpasses our analytical estimates in most cases. Finally, we test our method on an IonQ trapped-ion quantum computer accessed via the Amazon Braket cloud platform, and benchmark the performance of the averaging approach.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.13028 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Implementing a Fast Unbounded Quantum Fanout Gate Using Power-Law Interactions JF - Phys. Rev. Research Y1 - 2022 A1 - Andrew Y. Guo A1 - Abhinav Deshpande A1 - Su-Kuan Chu A1 - Zachary Eldredge A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Dhruv Devulapalli A1 - Yuan Su A1 - Andrew M. Childs A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

The standard circuit model for quantum computation presumes the ability to directly perform gates between arbitrary pairs of qubits, which is unlikely to be practical for large-scale experiments. Power-law interactions with strength decaying as 1/rα in the distance r provide an experimentally realizable resource for information processing, whilst still retaining long-range connectivity. We leverage the power of these interactions to implement a fast quantum fanout gate with an arbitrary number of targets. Our implementation allows the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) and Shor's algorithm to be performed on a D-dimensional lattice in time logarithmic in the number of qubits for interactions with α≤D. As a corollary, we show that power-law systems with α≤D are difficult to simulate classically even for short times, under a standard assumption that factoring is classically intractable. Complementarily, we develop a new technique to give a general lower bound, linear in the size of the system, on the time required to implement the QFT and the fanout gate in systems that are constrained by a linear light cone. This allows us to prove an asymptotically tighter lower bound for long-range systems than is possible with previously available techniques. 

VL - 4 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00662 CP - L042016 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L042016 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Behavior of Analog Quantum Algorithms Y1 - 2021 A1 - Lucas T. Brady A1 - Lucas Kocia A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Aniruddha Bapat A1 - Yaroslav Kharkov A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Analog quantum algorithms are formulated in terms of Hamiltonians rather than unitary gates and include quantum adiabatic computing, quantum annealing, and the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). These algorithms are promising candidates for near-term quantum applications, but they often require fine tuning via the annealing schedule or variational parameters. In this work, we explore connections between these analog algorithms, as well as limits in which they become approximations of the optimal procedure.Notably, we explore how the optimal procedure approaches a smooth adiabatic procedure but with a superposed oscillatory pattern that can be explained in terms of the interactions between the ground state and first excited state that effect the coherent error cancellation of diabatic transitions. Furthermore, we provide numeric and analytic evidence that QAOA emulates this optimal procedure with the length of each QAOA layer equal to the period of the oscillatory pattern. Additionally, the ratios of the QAOA bangs are determined by the smooth, non-oscillatory part of the optimal procedure. We provide arguments for these phenomena in terms of the product formula expansion of the optimal procedure. With these arguments, we conclude that different analog algorithms can emulate the optimal protocol under different limits and approximations. Finally, we present a new algorithm for better approximating the optimal protocol using the analytic and numeric insights from the rest of the paper. In practice, numerically, we find that this algorithm outperforms standard QAOA and naive quantum annealing procedures. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.01218 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics in Hyperbolic Space: From Photon Bound States to Frustrated Spin Models Y1 - 2021 A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Igor Boettcher A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Alicia J. Kollár A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Circuit quantum electrodynamics is one of the most promising platforms for efficient quantum simulation and computation. In recent groundbreaking experiments, the immense flexibility of superconducting microwave resonators was utilized to realize hyperbolic lattices that emulate quantum physics in negatively curved space. Here we investigate experimentally feasible settings in which a few superconducting qubits are coupled to a bath of photons evolving on the hyperbolic lattice. We compare our numerical results for finite lattices with analytical results for continuous hyperbolic space on the Poincaré disk. We find good agreement between the two descriptions in the long-wavelength regime. We show that photon-qubit bound states have a curvature-limited size. We propose to use a qubit as a local probe of the hyperbolic bath, for example by measuring the relaxation dynamics of the qubit. We find that, although the boundary effects strongly impact the photonic density of states, the spectral density is well described by the continuum theory. We show that interactions between qubits are mediated by photons propagating along geodesics. We demonstrate that the photonic bath can give rise to geometrically-frustrated hyperbolic quantum spin models with finite-range or exponentially-decaying interaction.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.06490 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Discovering hydrodynamic equations of many-body quantum systems Y1 - 2021 A1 - Yaroslav Kharkov A1 - Oles Shtanko A1 - Alireza Seif A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Mathias Van Regemortel A1 - Mohammad Hafezi A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Simulating and predicting dynamics of quantum many-body systems is extremely challenging, even for state-of-the-art computational methods, due to the spread of entanglement across the system. However, in the long-wavelength limit, quantum systems often admit a simplified description, which involves a small set of physical observables and requires only a few parameters such as sound velocity or viscosity. Unveiling the relationship between these hydrodynamic equations and the underlying microscopic theory usually requires a great effort by condensed matter theorists. In the present paper, we develop a new machine-learning framework for automated discovery of effective equations from a limited set of available data, thus bypassing complicated analytical derivations. The data can be generated from numerical simulations or come from experimental quantum simulator platforms. Using integrable models, where direct comparisons can be made, we reproduce previously known hydrodynamic equations, strikingly discover novel equations and provide their derivation whenever possible. We discover new hydrodynamic equations describing dynamics of interacting systems, for which the derivation remains an outstanding challenge. Our approach provides a new interpretable method to study properties of quantum materials and quantum simulators in non-perturbative regimes.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02385 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Linear and continuous variable spin-wave processing using a cavity-coupled atomic ensemble Y1 - 2021 A1 - Kevin C. Cox A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - David H. Meyer A1 - Donald P. Fahey A1 - Paul D. Kunz A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Spin-wave excitations in ensembles of atoms are gaining attention as a quantum information resource. However, current techniques with atomic spin waves do not achieve universal quantum information processing. We conduct a theoretical analysis of methods to create a high-capacity universal quantum processor and network node using an ensemble of laser-cooled atoms, trapped in a one-dimensional periodic potential and coupled to a ring cavity. We describe how to establish linear quantum processing using a lambda-scheme in a rubidium-atom system, calculate the expected experimental operational fidelities. Second, we derive an efficient method to achieve linear controllability with a single ensemble of atoms, rather than two-ensembles as proposed in [K. C. Cox et al. Spin-Wave Quantum Computing with Atoms in a Single-Mode Cavity, preprint 2021]. Finally, we propose to use the spin-wave processor for continuous-variable quantum information processing and present a scheme to generate large dual-rail cluster states useful for deterministic computing. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.15246 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Meta Hamiltonian Learning Y1 - 2021 A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Alireza Seif A1 - Mohammad Hafezi AB -

Efficient characterization of quantum devices is a significant challenge critical for the development of large scale quantum computers. We consider an experimentally motivated situation, in which we have a decent estimate of the Hamiltonian, and its parameters need to be characterized and fine-tuned frequently to combat drifting experimental variables. We use a machine learning technique known as meta-learning to learn a more efficient optimizer for this task. We consider training with the nearest-neighbor Ising model and study the trained model's generalizability to other Hamiltonian models and larger system sizes. We observe that the meta-optimizer outperforms other optimization methods in average loss over test samples. This advantage follows from the meta-optimizer being less likely to get stuck in local minima, which highly skews the distribution of the final loss of the other optimizers. In general, meta-learning decreases the number of calls to the experiment and reduces the needed classical computational resources.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.04453 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Quench Dynamics of a Fermi Gas with Strong Long-Range Interactions JF - Phys. Rev. X Y1 - 2021 A1 - Elmer Guardado-Sanchez A1 - Benjamin M. Spar A1 - Peter Schauss A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Jeremy T. Young A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Thomas Iadecola A1 - Waseem S. Bakr AB -

We induce strong non-local interactions in a 2D Fermi gas in an optical lattice using Rydberg dressing. The system is approximately described by a t−V model on a square lattice where the fermions experience isotropic nearest-neighbor interactions and are free to hop only along one direction. We measure the interactions using many-body Ramsey interferometry and study the lifetime of the gas in the presence of tunneling, finding that tunneling does not reduce the lifetime. To probe the interplay of non-local interactions with tunneling, we investigate the short-time relaxation dynamics of charge density waves in the gas. We find that strong nearest-neighbor interactions slow down the relaxation. Our work opens the door for quantum simulations of systems with strong non-local interactions such as extended Fermi-Hubbard models.

VL - 11 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.05871 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021036 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Spin-Wave Quantum Computing with Atoms in a Single-Mode Cavity Y1 - 2021 A1 - Kevin C. Cox A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - David H. Meyer A1 - Paul D. Kunz A1 - Donald P. Fahey A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We present a method for network-capable quantum computing that relies on holographic spin-wave excitations stored collectively in ensembles of qubits. We construct an orthogonal basis of spin waves in a one-dimensional array and show that high-fidelity universal linear controllability can be achieved using only phase shifts, applied in both momentum and position space. Neither single-site addressability nor high single-qubit cooperativity is required, and the spin waves can be read out with high efficiency into a single cavity mode for quantum computing and networking applications. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.15252 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Tunable three-body loss in a nonlinear Rydberg medium JF - Phys. Rev. Lett., in press Y1 - 2021 A1 - Dalia P. Ornelas Huerta A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Alexander N. Craddock A1 - Michael Gullans A1 - Andrew J. Hachtel A1 - Marcin Kalinowski A1 - Mary E. Lyon A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Steven L. Rolston A1 - J. V. Porto AB -

Long-range Rydberg interactions, in combination with electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), give rise to strongly interacting photons where the strength, sign, and form of the interactions are widely tunable and controllable. Such control can be applied to both coherent and dissipative interactions, which provides the potential to generate novel few-photon states. Recently it has been shown that Rydberg-EIT is a rare system in which three-body interactions can be as strong or stronger than two-body interactions. In this work, we study a three-body scattering loss for Rydberg-EIT in a wide regime of single and two-photon detunings. Our numerical simulations of the full three-body wavefunction and analytical estimates based on Fermi's Golden Rule strongly suggest that the observed features in the outgoing photonic correlations are caused by the resonant enhancement of the three-body losses.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.13599 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Asymmetric blockade and multi-qubit gates via dipole-dipole interactions Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jeremy T. Young A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Adam M. Kaufman A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Due to their strong and tunable interactions, Rydberg atoms can be used to realize fast two-qubit entangling gates. We propose a generalization of a generic two-qubit Rydberg-blockade gate to multi-qubit Rydberg-blockade gates which involve both many control qubits and many target qubits simultaneously. This is achieved by using strong microwave fields to dress nearby Rydberg states, leading to asymmetric blockade in which control-target interactions are much stronger than control-control and target-target interactions. The implementation of these multi-qubit gates can drastically simplify both quantum algorithms and state preparation. To illustrate this, we show that a 25-atom GHZ state can be created using only three gates with an error of 7.8%.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.02486 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Exotic photonic molecules via Lennard-Jones-like potentials JF - Phys. Rev. Lett. Y1 - 2020 A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Michael Gullans A1 - Marcin Kalinowski A1 - Alexander N. Craddock A1 - Dalia P. Ornelas-Huerta A1 - Steven L. Rolston A1 - J. V. Porto A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Ultracold systems offer an unprecedented level of control of interactions between atoms. An important challenge is to achieve a similar level of control of the interactions between photons. Towards this goal, we propose a realization of a novel Lennard-Jones-like potential between photons coupled to the Rydberg states via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). This potential is achieved by tuning Rydberg states to a F{ö}rster resonance with other Rydberg states. We consider few-body problems in 1D and 2D geometries and show the existence of self-bound clusters ("molecules") of photons. We demonstrate that for a few-body problem, the multi-body interactions have a significant impact on the geometry of the molecular ground state. This leads to phenomena without counterparts in conventional systems: For example, three photons in 2D preferentially arrange themselves in a line-configuration rather than in an equilateral-triangle configuration. Our result opens a new avenue for studies of many-body phenomena with strongly interacting photons.

VL - 125 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.07864 CP - 093601 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.093601 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Localization and criticality in antiblockaded 2D Rydberg atom arrays Y1 - 2020 A1 - Fangli Liu A1 - Zhi-Cheng Yang A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Thomas Iadecola A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Controllable Rydberg atom arrays have provided new insights into fundamental properties of quantum matter both in and out of equilibrium. In this work, we study the effect of experimentally relevant positional disorder on Rydberg atoms trapped in a 2D square lattice under anti-blockade (facilitation) conditions. We show that the facilitation conditions lead the connectivity graph of a particular subspace of the full Hilbert space to form a 2D Lieb lattice, which features a singular flat band. Remarkably, we find three distinct regimes as the disorder strength is varied: a critical regime, a delocalized but nonergodic regime, and a regime with a disorder-induced flat band. The critical regime's existence depends crucially upon the singular flat band in our model, and is absent in any 1D array or ladder system. We propose to use quench dynamics to probe the three different regimes experimentally. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.03946 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Minimal model for fast scrambling JF - Phys. Rev. Lett. Y1 - 2020 A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Yaroslav A. Kharkov A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Brian Swingle AB -

We study quantum information scrambling in spin models with both long-range all-to-all and short-range interactions. We argue that a simple global, spatially homogeneous interaction together with local chaotic dynamics is sufficient to give rise to fast scrambling, which describes the spread of quantum information over the entire system in a time that is logarithmic in the system size. This is illustrated in two exactly solvable models: (1) a random circuit with Haar random local unitaries and a global interaction and (2) a classical model of globally coupled non-linear oscillators. We use exact numerics to provide further evidence by studying the time evolution of an out-of-time-order correlator and entanglement entropy in spin chains of intermediate sizes. Our results can be verified with state-of-the-art quantum simulators.

VL - 125 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.05362 CP - 130601 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.130601 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Optimal Measurement of Field Properties with Quantum Sensor Networks Y1 - 2020 A1 - Timothy Qian A1 - Jacob Bringewatt A1 - Igor Boettcher A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We consider a quantum sensor network of qubit sensors coupled to a field f(x⃗ ;θ⃗ ) analytically parameterized by the vector of parameters θ⃗ . The qubit sensors are fixed at positions x⃗ 1,…,x⃗ d. While the functional form of f(x⃗ ;θ⃗ ) is known, the parameters θ⃗  are not. We derive saturable bounds on the precision of measuring an arbitrary analytic function q(θ⃗ ) of these parameters and construct the optimal protocols that achieve these bounds. Our results are obtained from a combination of techniques from quantum information theory and duality theorems for linear programming. They can be applied to many problems, including optimal placement of quantum sensors, field interpolation, and the measurement of functionals of parametrized fields.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.01259 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Quantum Simulation of Hyperbolic Space with Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics: From Graphs to Geometry JF - Phys. Rev. A Y1 - 2020 A1 - Igor Boettcher A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Alicia J. Kollár A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We show how quantum many-body systems on hyperbolic lattices with nearest-neighbor hopping and local interactions can be mapped onto quantum field theories in continuous negatively curved space. The underlying lattices have recently been realized experimentally with superconducting resonators and therefore allow for a table-top quantum simulation of quantum physics in curved background. Our mapping provides a computational tool to determine observables of the discrete system even for large lattices, where exact diagonalization fails. As an application and proof of principle we quantitatively reproduce the ground state energy, spectral gap, and correlation functions of the noninteracting lattice system by means of analytic formulas on the Poincaré disk, and show how conformal symmetry emerges for large lattices. This sets the stage for studying interactions and disorder on hyperbolic graphs in the future. Our analysis also reveals in which sense discrete hyperbolic lattices emulate the continuous geometry of negatively curved space and thus can be used to resolve fundamental open problems at the interface of interacting many-body systems, quantum field theory in curved space, and quantum gravity.

VL - 102 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.12318 CP - 032208 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.102.032208 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Realizing and Probing Baryonic Excitations in Rydberg Atom Arrays Y1 - 2020 A1 - Fangli Liu A1 - Seth Whitsitt A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Rex Lundgren A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

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. `tetraquarks', `pentaquarks') in phases with Zq order for q>3. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.07258 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Resonant enhancement of three-body loss between strongly interacting photons Y1 - 2020 A1 - Marcin Kalinowski A1 - Yidan Wang A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Michael Gullans A1 - Dalia P. Ornelas-Huerta A1 - Alexander N. Craddock A1 - Steven L. Rolston A1 - J. V. Porto A1 - Hans Peter Büchler A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

Rydberg polaritons provide an example of a rare type of system where three-body interactions can be as strong or even stronger than two-body interactions. The three-body interactions can be either dispersive or dissipative, with both types possibly giving rise to exotic, strongly-interacting, and topological phases of matter. Despite past theoretical and experimental studies of the regime with dispersive interaction, the dissipative regime is still mostly unexplored. Using a renormalization group technique to solve the three-body Schrödinger equation, we show how the shape and strength of dissipative three-body forces can be universally enhanced for Rydberg polaritons. We demonstrate how these interactions relate to the transmission through a single-mode cavity, which can be used as a probe of the three-body physics in current experiment

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09772 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Nondestructive cooling of an atomic quantum register via state-insensitive Rydberg interactions Y1 - 2019 A1 - Ron Belyansky A1 - Jeremy T. Young A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Zachary Eldredge A1 - Adam M. Kaufman A1 - Peter Zoller A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We propose a protocol for sympathetically cooling neutral atoms without destroying the quantum information stored in their internal states. This is achieved by designing state-insensitive Rydberg interactions between the data-carrying atoms and cold auxiliary atoms. The resulting interactions give rise to an effective phonon coupling, which leads to the transfer of heat from the data atoms to the auxiliary atoms, where the latter can be cooled by conventional methods. This can be used to extend the lifetime of quantum storage based on neutral atoms and can have applications for long quantum computations. The protocol can also be modified to realize state-insensitive interactions between the data and the auxiliary atoms but tunable and non-trivial interactions among the data atoms, allowing one to simultaneously cool and simulate a quantum spin-model. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.11156 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Scale-Invariant Continuous Entanglement Renormalization of a Chern Insulator JF - Phys. Rev. Lett Y1 - 2019 A1 - Su-Kuan Chu A1 - Guanyu Zhu A1 - James R. Garrison A1 - Zachary Eldredge A1 - Ana Valdés Curiel A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - I. B. Spielman A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

The multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) postulates the existence of quantum circuits that renormalize entanglement in real space at different length scales. Chern insulators, however, cannot have scale-invariant discrete MERA circuits with finite bond dimension. In this Letter, we show that the continuous MERA (cMERA), a modified version of MERA adapted for field theories, possesses a fixed point wavefunction with nonzero Chern number. Additionally, it is well known that reversed MERA circuits can be used to prepare quantum states efficiently in time that scales logarithmically with the size of the system. However, state preparation via MERA typically requires the advent of a full-fledged universal quantum computer. In this Letter, we demonstrate that our cMERA circuit can potentially be realized in existing analog quantum computers, i.e., an ultracold atomic Fermi gas in an optical lattice with light-induced spin-orbit coupling. 

VL - 122 UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.11486 CP - 120502 U5 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.120502 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Dark state optical lattice with sub-wavelength spatial structure JF - Phys. Rev. Lett. Y1 - 2018 A1 - Yang Wang A1 - Sarthak Subhankar A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Mateusz Lacki A1 - Tsz-Chun Tsui A1 - Mikhail A. Baranov A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Peter Zoller A1 - James V. Porto A1 - Steven L. Rolston AB -

We report on the experimental realization of a conservative optical lattice for cold atoms with a subwavelength spatial structure. The potential is based on the nonlinear optical response of three-level atoms in laser-dressed dark states, which is not constrained by the diffraction limit of the light generating the potential. The lattice consists of a one-dimensional array of ultranarrow barriers with widths less than 10 nm, well below the wavelength of the lattice light, physically realizing a Kronig-Penney potential. We study the band structure and dissipation of this lattice and find good agreement with theoretical predictions. Even on resonance, the observed lifetimes of atoms trapped in the lattice are as long as 44 ms, nearly 105times the excited state lifetime, and could be further improved with more laser intensity. The potential is readily generalizable to higher dimensions and different geometries, allowing, for example, nearly perfect box traps, narrow tunnel junctions for atomtronics applications, and dynamically generated lattices with subwavelength spacings.

VL - 120 U4 - 083601 UR - https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.083601 U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.083601 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Fractional quantum Hall phases of bosons with tunable interactions: From the Laughlin liquid to a fractional Wigner crystal Y1 - 2018 A1 - Tobias Graß A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - Michael Gullans A1 - Rex Lundgren A1 - Joseph Maciejko A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

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.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.04493 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Photon propagation through dissipative Rydberg media at large input rates Y1 - 2018 A1 - Przemyslaw Bienias A1 - James Douglas A1 - Asaf Paris-Mandoki A1 - Paraj Titum A1 - Ivan Mirgorodskiy A1 - Christoph Tresp A1 - Emil Zeuthen A1 - Michael Gullans A1 - Marco Manzoni A1 - Sebastian Hofferberth A1 - Darrick Chang A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We study the dissipative propagation of quantized light in interacting Rydberg media under the conditions of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Rydberg blockade physics in optically dense atomic media leads to strong dissipative interactions between single photons. The regime of high incoming photon flux constitutes a challenging many-body dissipative problem. We experimentally study in detail for the first time the pulse shapes and the second-order correlation function of the outgoing field and compare our data with simulations based on two novel theoretical approaches well-suited to treat this many-photon limit. At low incoming flux, we report good agreement between both theories and the experiment. For higher input flux, the intensity of the outgoing light is lower than that obtained from theoretical predictions. We explain this discrepancy using a simple phenomenological model taking into account pollutants, which are nearly-stationary Rydberg excitations coming from the reabsorption of scattered probe photons. At high incoming photon rates, the blockade physics results in unconventional shapes of measured correlation functions. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07586 ER -