Coherent Imaging Spectroscopy of a Quantum Many-Body Spin System

ORAL

Abstract

Trapped-ion quantum simulators are a promising candidate for exploring quantum-many-body physics, such as quantum magnetism, that are difficult to examine in condensed-matter experiments or using classical simulation. We demonstrate a coherent imaging spectroscopic technique to validate a quantum simulation [1]. In this work, we study fully-connected transverse Ising models with a chain of up to 18 $^{171}$Yb$^+$ ions. Here, We resolve the state of each spin by collecting the spin-dependent fluorescence on a camera in order to map the complete energy spectrum and fully characterize the spin-spin couplings, while also engineering entangled states and measuring the critical gap near a quantum phase transition. We expect this general technique to become an important verification tool for quantum simulators.\\[4pt] [1] C. Senko, et al, arXiv:1401.5751 (2014).

*This work is supported by grants from the U.S. Army Research Office with funding from the DARPA OLE program, IARPA, and the MURI program; and the NSF Physics Frontier Center at JQI.

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Authors

  • Jacob Smith

    • (JQI) Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Dept. of Physics and NIST, College Park, Maryland 20742

  • Crystal Senko

    • (JQI) Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Dept. of Physics and NIST, College Park, Maryland 20742
    • JQI and University of Maryland

  • Phil Richerme

    • (JQI) Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Dept. of Physics and NIST, College Park, Maryland 20742

  • Aaron Lee

    • (JQI) Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Dept. of Physics and NIST, College Park, Maryland 20742

  • Wes Campbell

    • UCLA
    • Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095

  • Chris Monroe

    • Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Department of Physics and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College Park, Maryland 20742
    • Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Department of Physics and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College Park, Maryland-20742
    • JQI