No Arabic abstract
We discuss in detail the implementation of an open-system quantum simulator with Rydberg states of neutral atoms held in an optical lattice. Our scheme allows one to realize both coherent as well as dissipative dynamics of complex spin models involving many-body interactions and constraints. The central building block of the simulation scheme is constituted by a mesoscopic Rydberg gate that permits the entanglement of several atoms in an efficient, robust and quick protocol. In addition, optical pumping on ancillary atoms provides the dissipative ingredient for engineering the coupling between the system and a tailored environment. As an illustration, we discuss how the simulator enables the simulation of coherent evolution of quantum spin models such as the two-dimensional Heisenberg model and Kitaevs toric code, which involves four-body spin interactions. We moreover show that in principle also the simulation of lattice fermions can be achieved. As an example for controlled dissipative dynamics, we discuss ground state cooling of frustration-free spin Hamiltonians.
Quantum simulation using synthetic systems is a promising route to solve outstanding quantum many-body problems in regimes where other approaches, including numerical ones, fail. Many platforms are being developed towards this goal, in particular based on trapped ions, superconducting circuits, neutral atoms or molecules. All of which face two key challenges: (i) scaling up the ensemble size, whilst retaining high quality control over the parameters and (ii) certifying the outputs for these large systems. Here, we use programmable arrays of individual atoms trapped in optical tweezers, with interactions controlled by laser-excitation to Rydberg states to implement an iconic many-body problem, the antiferromagnetic 2D transverse field Ising model. We push this platform to an unprecedented regime with up to 196 atoms manipulated with high fidelity. We probe the antiferromagnetic order by dynamically tuning the parameters of the Hamiltonian. We illustrate the versatility of our platform by exploring various system sizes on two qualitatively different geometries, square and triangular arrays. We obtain good agreement with numerical calculations up to a computationally feasible size (around 100 particles). This work demonstrates that our platform can be readily used to address open questions in many-body physics.
Arrays of optically trapped atoms excited to Rydberg states have recently emerged as a competitive physical platform for quantum simulation and computing, where high-fidelity state preparation and readout, quantum logic gates and controlled quantum dynamics of more than 100 qubits have all been demonstrated. These systems are now approaching the point where reliable quantum computations with hundreds of qubits and realistically thousands of multiqubit gates with low error rates should be within reach for the first time. In this article we give an overview of the Rydberg quantum toolbox, emphasizing the high degree of flexibility for encoding qubits, performing quantum operations and engineering quantum many-body Hamiltonians. We then review the state-of-the-art concerning high-fidelity quantum operations and logic gates as well as quantum simulations in many-body regimes. Finally, we discuss computing schemes that are particularly suited to the Rydberg platform and some of the remaining challenges on the road to general purpose quantum simulators and quantum computers.
Digital quantum simulation is a promising application for quantum computers. Their free programmability provides the potential to simulate the unitary evolution of any many-body Hamiltonian with bounded spectrum by discretizing the time evolution operator through a sequence of elementary quantum gates, typically achieved using Trotterization. A fundamental challenge in this context originates from experimental imperfections for the involved quantum gates, which critically limits the number of attainable gates within a reasonable accuracy and therefore the achievable system sizes and simulation times. In this work, we introduce a reinforcement learning algorithm to systematically build optimized quantum circuits for digital quantum simulation upon imposing a strong constraint on the number of allowed quantum gates. With this we consistently obtain quantum circuits that reproduce physical observables with as little as three entangling gates for long times and large system sizes. As concrete examples we apply our formalism to a long range Ising chain and the lattice Schwinger model. Our method makes larger scale digital quantum simulation possible within the scope of current experimental technology.
Quantum simulators could provide an alternative to numerical simulations for understanding minimal models of condensed matter systems in a controlled way. Typically, cold atom systems are used to simulate e.g. Hubbard models. In this paper, we discuss a range of exotic interactions that can be formed when cold Rydberg atoms are loaded into optical lattices with unconventional geometries; such as long-range electron-phonon interactions and extended Coulomb like interactions. We show how these can lead to proposals for quantum simulators for complex condensed matter systems such as superconductors. Continuous time quantum Monte Carlo is used to compare the proposed schemes with the physics found in traditional condensed matter Hamiltonians for systems such as high temperature superconductors.
In the last twenty years, Rydberg atoms have become a versatile and much studied system for implementing quantum many-body systems in the framework of quantum computation and quantum simulation. However, even in the absence of coherent evolution Rydberg systems exhibit interesting and non-trivial many-body phenomena such as kinetic constraints and non-equilibrium phase transitions that are relevant in a number of research fields. Here we review our recent work on such systems, where dissipation leads to incoherent dynamics and also to population decay. We show that those two effects, together with the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms, give rise to a number of intriguing phenomena that make cold Rydberg atoms an attractive test-bed for classical many-body processes and quantum generalizations thereof.