Relativistic meson spectra on ion-trap quantum simulators

Year: 2022

Authors: Knaute Johannes; Hauke Philipp

Autors Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany; Department of Physics, Freie Universitdt Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany; INO-CNR BEC Center and Physics Department of Trento University, Via Sommarive 14, I-38123 Povo (Trento), Italy

Abstract: The recent rapid experimental advancement in the engineering of quantum many-body systems opens the avenue to controlled studies of fundamental physics problems via digital or analog quantum simulations. Here, we systematically analyze the capability of analog ion traps to explore relativistic meson spectra on current devices. We focus on the E-8 quantum field theory regime, which arises due to longitudinal perturbations at the critical point of the transverse-field Ising model. As we show through exact numerics, for sufficiently strong long-range suppression in experimentally accessible spin chain models, absorption spectroscopy allows for the identification of the low-lying meson excitations with a good degree of accuracy even for small system sizes. Our proposal thus opens a way for probing salient features of quantum many-body systems reminiscent of meson properties in high-energy physics.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 105 (2)      Pages from: 022616-1  to: 022616-12

More Information: The Gravity, Quantum Fields and Information group at AEI was generously supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research through the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award. J.K. was partially supported by the International Max Planck Research School for Mathematical and Physical Aspects of Gravitation, Cosmology and Quantum Field Theory. The work of J.K. was supported in part by a fellowship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation). P.H. was supported by Provincia Autonoma di Trento, the ERC Starting Grant StrEnQTh (Project No. ID 804305), the Google Research Scholar Award ProGauge, and Q@TN-Quantum Science and Technology in Trento.
KeyWords: field; symmetry
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.105.022616