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Non-equilibrium critical phenomena in a trapped-ion quantum simulator

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Abstract

Recent work has predicted that quenched near-integrable systems can exhibit dynamics associated with thermal, quantum, or purely non-equilibrium phase transitions, depending on the initial state [1]. Using a trapped-ion quantum simulator with intrinsic long-range interactions, we investigate collective non-equilibrium properties of critical fluctuations after quantum quenches. In particular, we probe the scaling behavior of fluctuations near the critical point of the ground-state disorder-to-order phase transition, after single and double quenches of the transverse field in a long-range Ising Hamiltonian. With system sizes of up to 50 ions, we show that both the post-quench fluctuation magnitude and dynamics scale with system size with distinct critical exponents, charaterizing the type of phase-transition. Furthermore we demonstrate that the critical exponents after a single and a double quenches are different and correspond to effectively thermal and truly non-equilibrium behavior, respectively. Our results demonstrate the ability of quantum simulators to explore universal scaling beyond the equilibrium context. 

 [1] Paraj Titum and Mohammad F. Maghrebi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 040602 (2020).

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Presenters

  • Arinjoy De

    JQI and QuICS and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, JQI, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

Authors

  • Arinjoy De

    JQI and QuICS and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, JQI, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

  • Patrick Cook

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University

  • William N Morong

    JQI and QuICS and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, JQI, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

  • Kate S Collins

    JQI and QuICS and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, JQI, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Joint Quantum Institute and Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

  • Daniel A. Paz

    Department of Physics and Astronomy,Michigan State University

  • Paraj Titum

    Applied Phys Lab/JHU

  • Wen Lin Tan

    IonQ Inc., College Park, Maryland

  • Guido Pagano

    Rice University

  • Alexey V Gorshkov

    JQI

  • Mohammad F. Maghrebi

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University

  • Christopher Monroe

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, Duke Quantum Center, Duke University; Joint Quantum Institute, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park; IonQ Inc., Duke University, JQI, QuIcs, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, IonQ Inc, College Park MD; DQC, Dept of Physics, Dept. of ECE, Duke University, Durham, NC, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Duke Quantum Center, Duke University; Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland, Duke Quantum Center and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (and Physics), Duke University, Durham, NC; IonQ, Inc., College Park, MD 20740