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Published on: August 2, 2019
Thermalization dynamics of a gauge theory on a quantum simulator
Zhao-Yu Zhou1,2,3,4, Guo-Xian Su1,2,3,4, Jad C Halimeh5
1Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Abstract:
Gauge theories form the foundation of modern physics, with applications ranging from elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology to condensed matter systems. We perform quantum simulations of the unitary dynamics of a U(1) symmetric gauge field theory and demonstrate emergent irreversible behavior. The highly constrained gauge theory dynamics are encoded in a one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard simulator, which couples fermionic matter fields through dynamical gauge fields. We investigated global quantum quenches and the equilibration to a steady state well approximated by a thermal ensemble. Our work may enable the investigation of elusive phenomena, such as Schwinger pair production and string breaking, and paves the way for simulating more complex, higher-dimensional gauge theories on quantum synthetic matter devices.
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