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Verification of a Many-Ion Simulator of the Dicke Model Through Slow Quenches across a Phase Transition
A Safavi-Naini1,2, R J Lewis-Swan1,2, J G Bohnet3
1JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Abstract:
We use a self-assembled two-dimensional Coulomb crystal of ∼70 ions in the presence of an external transverse field to engineer a simulator of the Dicke Hamiltonian, an iconic model in quantum optics which features a quantum phase transition between a superradiant (ferromagnetic) and a normal (paramagnetic) phase. We experimentally implement slow quenches across the quantum critical point and benchmark the dynamics and the performance of the simulator through extensive theory-experiment comparisons which show excellent agreement. The implementation of the Dicke model in fully controllable trapped ion arrays can open a path for the generation of highly entangled states useful for enhanced metrology and the observation of scrambling and quantum chaos in a many-body system.
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