Experimental Trapped-ion Quantum Simulation of the Kibble-Zurek dynamics in momentum space

Jin-Ming Cui; Yun-Feng Huang; Zhao Wang; Dong-Yang Cao; Jian Wang; Wei-Min Lv; Le Luo; Adolfo Del Campo; Yong-Jian Han; Chuan-Feng Li; Guang-Can Guo

doi:10.1038/srep33381

Experimental Trapped-ion Quantum Simulation of the Kibble-Zurek dynamics in momentum space

Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 16:6:33381. doi: 10.1038/srep33381.

Authors

Jin-Ming Cui^{1

2}, Yun-Feng Huang^{1

2}, Zhao Wang^{1

2}, Dong-Yang Cao^{1

2}, Jian Wang^{1

2}, Wei-Min Lv^{1

2}, Le Luo³, Adolfo Del Campo⁴, Yong-Jian Han^{1

2}, Chuan-Feng Li^{1

2}, Guang-Can Guo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, CAS, Hefei, 230026, People's Republic of China.
² Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics,University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, People's Republic of China.
³ Trapped Atoms and Ions Laboratory, Department of Physics,Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202-3273, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Boston,100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125, USA.

Abstract

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is the paradigm to account for the nonadiabatic dynamics of a system across a continuous phase transition. Its study in the quantum regime is hindered by the requisite of ground state cooling. We report the experimental quantum simulation of critical dynamics in the transverse-field Ising model by a set of Landau-Zener crossings in pseudo-momentum space, that can be probed with high accuracy using a single trapped ion. We test the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum regime in the momentum space and find the measured scaling of excitations is in accordance with the theoretical prediction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't