Tuning the Topological ?-Angle in Cold-Atom Quantum Simulators of Gauge Theories

Year: 2022

Authors: Halimeh JC., McCulloch IP., Yang B., Hauke P.

Autors Affiliation: Ludwig Maximilians Univ Munchen, Dept Phys, Theresienstr 37, D-80333 Munich, Germany; Ludwig Maximilians Univ Munchen, Arnold Sommerfeld Ctr Theoret Phys ASC, Theresienstr 37, D-80333 Munich, Germany; Munich Ctr Quantum Sci & Technol MCQST, Schellingstr 4, D-80799 Munich, Germany; Univ Queensland, Sch Math & Phys, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia; Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Phys, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China; Univ Trento, INO CNR BEC Ctr, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Univ Trento, Dept Phys, Via Sommar 14, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Trento Inst Fundamental Phys & Applicat, INFN TIFPA, Trento, Italy.

Abstract: The topological ?-Angle in gauge theories engenders a series of fundamental phenomena, includ-ing violations of charge-parity (CP) symmetry, dynamical topological transitions, and confinement-deconfinement transitions. At the same time, it poses major challenges for theoretical studies, as it implies a sign problem in numerical simulations. Analog quantum simulators open the promising prospect of treat-ing quantum many-body systems with such topological terms, but, contrary to their digital counterparts, they have not yet demonstrated the capacity to control the 0-angle. Here, we demonstrate how a tunable topological 0-term can be added to a prototype theory with U(1) gauge symmetry, a discretized version of quantum electrodynamics in one spatial dimension. As we show, the model can be realized experimentally in a single-species Bose-Hubbard model in an optical superlattice with three different spatial periods, thus requiring only standard experimental resources. Through numerical calculations obtained from the time -dependent density-matrix renormalization group method and exact diagonalization, we benchmark the model system, and illustrate how salient effects due to the 0-term can be observed. These include charge confinement, the weakening of quantum many-body scarring, as well as the disappearance of Coleman’s phase transition due to explicit breaking of CP symmetry. This work opens the door towards studying the rich physics of topological gauge-theory terms in large-scale cold-atom quantum simulators.

Journal/Review: PRX QUANTUM

Volume: 3 (4)      Pages from: 40316-1  to: 40316-21

More Information: We acknowledge fruitful discussions with Robert Ott, Guo-Xian Su, Zhao-Yu Zhou, Hui Sun, Zhen-Sheng Yuan, and Jian-Wei Pan. J.C.H. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement N.o 948141) – ERC Starting Grant SimUcQuam, and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foun-dation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy -EXC-2111 – 390814868. I.P.M. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grants No. DP190101515 and No. DP200103760. This work is part of and supported by Provincia Autonoma di Trento, the ERC Starting Grant StrEnQTh (project ID 804305), the Google Research Scholar Award ProGauge, and Q@TN – Quantum Science and Technology in Trento.
KeyWords: Lattice; Invariance; Collisions; Dynamics; Vacuum; Weak
DOI: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.040316

Citations: 26
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