Dissipative Phases and Reservoir Engineering in Analog Quantum Simulations on an Ion Trap

Analog quantum simulators use native interactions on well controlled platforms to mimic behavior of uncontrolled systems of interest. These uncontrolled systems in general have some dissipative interaction with a bath, which may lead to phase transitions between distinct non-equilibrium steady-state phases. Probing these dissipative phase transitions (DPTs) has proven to be a rich area of study, leading to new understanding of open quantum systems and new techniques such as dissipative cooling of a many-body system. Here we probe at these DPTs on our Yb+ ion trap. The long coherence times of ion trap systems, paired with their simple state reset operations, make them ideal platforms for performing quantum simulations with engineered dissipation. We utilize both the internal energy levels of the ion and the collective motional modes of ion chains to encode information into effective spin-1/2 and bosonic degrees of freedom, respectively. Further, we explore site-selective individual reset using a resonant beam controlled by a digital micromirror device as a highly flexible parameter for reservoir engineering. Such techniques open up a wider range of study and allow for new strategies in future explorations of these dissipative quantum simulations.