Non-Integrable Dynamics in a Trapped-Ion Quantum Simulator
Non-Integrable Dynamics in a Trapped-Ion Quantum Simulator
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Date
2021
Authors
Becker, Patrick Michael
Advisor
Monroe, Christopher
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Abstract
From the first demonstration of a quantum logic gate in 1995 to the actualizationof a “quantum advantage” over classical technology a few years ago, the field
of quantum information has made remarkable progress during my lifetime. Multiple
quantum technology platforms have developed to the point that companies and
governments are investing heavily in the industry. A primary focus is the development
of fault-tolerant error correction, a technology expected to be necessary for
large-scale digital quantum computers. Meanwhile analog quantum simulators, a
subclass of quantum computers that apply unitary evolutions instead of digitized
gates, are at the forefront of controllable quantum system sizes. In place of algorithms,
analog quantum simulators are naturally suited to study many-body physics
and model certain materials and transport phenomena. In this thesis I discuss an
analog quantum simulator based on trapped +Yb171 ions and its use for studying
dynamics and thermalizing properties of the non-integrable long-range Ising model
with system sizes near the limit of classical tractability.
In addition to the technical properties of the simulator, I present three select
experiments that I worked on during my PhD. The first is an observation of a
phenomenon in nonequilibrium physics, a dynamical phase transition (DPT). While
equilibrium phase transitions follow robust universal principles, DPTs are challenging
to describe with conventional thermodynamics. We present an experimental
observation and characterization of a DPT with up to 53 qubits.
We also explore the system’s ability to simulate physics beyond its own by
implementing a quasiparticle confinement Hamiltonian. Here we see that the natural
long-range interactions present in the simulator induce an effective confining
potential on pairs of domain-wall quasiparticles, which behave similarly to quarks
bound into mesons. We measure post-quench dynamics to identify how confinement
introduces low-energy bound states and inhibits thermalization.
Lastly, we use the individual-addressing capabilities of our simulator to implement
Stark many-body localization (MBL) with a linear potential gradient. Stark
MBL provides a novel, disorder-free method for localizing a quantum system that
would otherwise thermalize under evolution. We explore how the localized phase
depends on the gradient strength and uncover the presence of correlations using
interferrometric double electron-electron resonance (DEER) measurements.
These experiments show the capability of our experiment to study complex
quantum dynamics in systems near 50 qubits and above.