Ana Rey | University of Colorado, Boulder (original) (raw)

Papers by Ana Rey

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 1, 2019

Interactions between atoms and light in optical cavities provide a means of investigating collect... more Interactions between atoms and light in optical cavities provide a means of investigating collective (many-body) quantum physics in controlled environments. Such ensembles of atoms in cavities have been proposed for studying collective quantum spin models, where the atomic internal levels mimic a spin degree of freedom and interact through long-range interactions tunable by changing the cavity parameters [1-4]. Non-classical steady-state phases arising from the interplay between atom-light interactions and dissipation of light from the cavity have previously been investigated [5-11]. These systems also offer the opportunity to study dynamical phases of matter that are precluded from existence at equilibrium but can be stabilized by driving a system out of equilibrium [12-16], as demonstrated by recent experiments [17-22]. These phases can also display universal behaviours akin to standard equilibrium phase transitions [8, 23, 24]. Here, we use an ensemble of about a million strontium-88 atoms in an optical cavity to simulate a collective Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model [25, 26], an iconic model in quantum magnetism, and report the observation of distinct dynamical phases of matter in this system. Our system allows us to probe the dependence of dynamical phase transitions on system size, initial state and other parameters. These observations can be linked to similar dynamical phases in related systems, including the Josephson effect in superfluid helium [27], or coupled atomic [28] and solid-state polariton [29] condensates. The system itself offers potential for generation of metrologically useful entangled states in optical transitions, which could permit quantum enhancement in state-of-the-art atomic clocks [30, 31].

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 28, 2018

A proposed paradigm for out-of-equilibrium quantum systems is that an analogue of quantum phase t... more A proposed paradigm for out-of-equilibrium quantum systems is that an analogue of quantum phase transitions exists between parameter regimes of qualitatively distinct time-dependent behavior. Here, we present evidence of such a transition between dynamical phases in a cold-atom quantum simulator of the collective Heisenberg model. Our simulator encodes spin in the hyperfine states of ultracold fermionic potassium. Atoms are pinned in a network of single-particle modes, whose spatial extent emulates the long-range interactions of traditional quantum magnets. We find that below a critical interaction strength, magnetization of an initially polarized fermionic gas decays quickly, while above the transition point, the magnetization becomes long-lived, due to an energy gap that protects against dephasing by the inhomogeneous axial field. Our quantum simulation reveals a non-equilibrium transition predicted to exist but not yet directly observed in quenched s-wave superconductors.

Science, 2022

Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions enables the realization of dis... more Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions enables the realization of distinct quantum phenomena. Using an electric field gradient, we demonstrated layer-resolved state preparation and imaging of ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules confined to two-dimensional planes in an optical lattice. The rotational coherence was maximized by rotating the electric field relative to the light polarization for state-insensitive trapping. Spatially separated molecules in adjacent layers interact through dipolar spin exchange of rotational angular momentum; by adjusting these interactions, we regulated the local chemical reaction rate. The resonance width of the exchange process vastly exceeded the dipolar interaction energy, an effect attributed to thermal energy. This work realized precise control of interacting molecules, enabling electric field microscopy on subwavelength scales and allowing access to unexplored physics in two-dimensional systems.

Developing the isolation and control of ultracold atomic systems to the level of single quanta ha... more Developing the isolation and control of ultracold atomic systems to the level of single quanta has led to significant advances in quantum sensing, yet demonstrating a quantum advantage in real world applications by harnessing entanglement remains a core task. Here, we realize a many-body quantum-enhanced sensor to detect weak displacements and electric fields using a large crystal of ∼ 150 trapped ions. The center of mass vibrational mode of the crystal serves as high-Q mechanical oscillator and the collective electronic spin as the measurement device. By entangling the oscillator and the collective spin before the displacement is applied and by controlling the coherent dynamics via a many-body echo we are able to utilize the delicate spin-motion entanglement to map the displacement into a spin rotation such that we avoid quantum back-action and cancel detrimental thermal noise. We report quantum enhanced sensitivity to displacements of 8.8 ± 0.4dB below the standard quantum limit a...

Physical Review Letters, 2020

We propose a new dynamical method to connect equilibrium quantum phase transitions and quantum co... more We propose a new dynamical method to connect equilibrium quantum phase transitions and quantum coherence using out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs). Adopting the iconic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick and transverse-field Ising models as illustrative examples, we show that an abrupt change in coherence and entanglement of the ground state across a quantum phase transition is observable in the spectrum of multiple quantum coherence (MQC) intensities, which are a special type of OTOC. We also develop a robust protocol to obtain the relevant OTOCs using quasiadiabatic quenches through the ground state phase diagram. Our scheme allows for the detection of OTOCs without time-reversal of coherent dynamics, making it applicable and important for a broad range of current experiments where time-reversal cannot be achieved by inverting the sign of the underlying Hamiltonian.

Science, 2021

Quantum enhanced sensing Harnessing quantum mechanical effects is expected to provide an advantag... more Quantum enhanced sensing Harnessing quantum mechanical effects is expected to provide an advantage over classical sensing technology. By entangling the center-of-mass motional state of approximately 150 ions trapped in a two-dimensional Coulomb crystal with their collective spin state, Gilmore et al . demonstrate a quantum-enhanced measurement sensitivity of displacement and electric field. Such enhanced sensitivity could, for instance, find application in probing proposed weak interactions between dark matter and normal matter, as well as enhancing gravitational wave detection. —ISO

Physical Review Letters, 2019

Arrays of atoms trapped in optical tweezers combine features of programmable analog quantum simul... more Arrays of atoms trapped in optical tweezers combine features of programmable analog quantum simulators with atomic quantum sensors. Here we propose variational quantum algorithms, tailored for tweezer arrays as programmable quantum sensors, capable of generating entangled states ondemand for precision metrology. The scheme is designed to generate metrological enhancement by optimizing it in a feedback loop on the quantum device itself, thus preparing the best entangled states given the available quantum resources. We apply our ideas to generate spin-squeezed states on Sr atom tweezer arrays, where finite-range interactions are generated through Rydberg dressing. The complexity of experimental variational optimization of our quantum circuits is expected to scale favorably with system size. We numerically show our approach to be robust to noise, and surpassing known protocols.

Science Advances, 2019

Ultracold fermions provide a new testbed for dynamical phases of quantum matter forbidden by equi... more Ultracold fermions provide a new testbed for dynamical phases of quantum matter forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics.

Nature Physics, 2018

Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave ... more Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave collisions. However, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), fermions prepared in identical internal states with distinct momenta become distinguishable. The resulting strongly interacting system can exhibit exotic topological and pairing behaviors 1-4 , many of which are yet to be observed in condensed matter systems. Ultracold atomic gases offer a promising pathway for simulating these rich phenomena 5-8. Two recent experiments reported the observation of single atom SOC in optical lattice clocks (OLCs) based on alkaline-1

Physical review letters, Jan 12, 2018

We show that Ramsey spectroscopy of fermionic alkaline-earth atoms in a square-well trap provides... more We show that Ramsey spectroscopy of fermionic alkaline-earth atoms in a square-well trap provides an efficient and accurate estimate for the eigenspectrum of a density matrix whose n copies are stored in the nuclear spins of n such atoms. This spectrum estimation is enabled by the high symmetry of the interaction Hamiltonian, dictated, in turn, by the decoupling of the nuclear spin from the electrons and by the shape of the square-well trap. Practical performance of this procedure and its potential applications to quantum computing and time keeping with alkaline-earth atoms are discussed.

Physical review letters, Jan 26, 2018

Out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) characterize the scrambling, or delocalization, of quantum... more Out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) characterize the scrambling, or delocalization, of quantum information over all the degrees of freedom of a system and thus have been proposed as a proxy for chaos in quantum systems. Recent experimental progress in measuring OTOCs calls for a more thorough understanding of how these quantities characterize complex quantum systems, most importantly in terms of the buildup of entanglement. Although a connection between OTOCs and entanglement entropy has been derived, the latter only quantifies entanglement in pure systems and is hard to access experimentally. In this work, we formally demonstrate that the multiple-quantum coherence spectra, a specific family of OTOCs well known in NMR, can be used as an entanglement witness and as a direct probe of multiparticle entanglement. Our results open a path to experimentally testing the fascinating idea that entanglement is the underlying glue that links thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and quantu...

Physical review letters, Jan 17, 2018

Cavity QED is a promising avenue for the deterministic generation of entangled and spin-squeezed ... more Cavity QED is a promising avenue for the deterministic generation of entangled and spin-squeezed states for quantum metrology. One archetypal scheme generates squeezing via collective one-axis twisting interactions. However, we show that in implementations using optical transitions in long-lived atoms the achievable squeezing is fundamentally limited by collectively enhanced emission into the cavity mode which is generated in parallel with the cavity-mediated spin-spin interactions. We propose an alternative scheme which generates a squeezed state that is protected from collective emission, and investigate its sensitivity to realistic sources of experimental noise and imperfections.

Nature Physics, 2017

Controllable arrays of ions and ultracold atoms can simulate complex many-body phenomena and may ... more Controllable arrays of ions and ultracold atoms can simulate complex many-body phenomena and may provide insights into unsolved problems in modern science. To this end, experimentally feasible protocols for quantifying the buildup of quantum correlations and coherence are needed, as performing full state tomography does not scale favourably with the number of particles. Here we develop and experimentally demonstrate such a protocol, which uses time reversal of the many-body dynamics to measure out-of-time-order correlation functions (OTOCs) in a long-range Ising spin quantum simulator with more than 100 ions in a Penning trap. By measuring a family of OTOCs as a function of a tunable parameter we obtain fine-grained information about the state of the system encoded in the multiple quantum coherence spectrum, extract the quantum state purity, and demonstrate the buildup of up to 8-body correlations. Future applications of this protocol could enable studies of many-body localization, quantum phase transitions, and tests of the holographic duality between quantum and gravitational systems.

Physical Review A, 2016

The global coupling of few-level quantum systems ("spins") to a discrete set of bosonic modes is ... more The global coupling of few-level quantum systems ("spins") to a discrete set of bosonic modes is a key ingredient for many applications in quantum science, including large-scale entanglement generation, quantum simulation of the dynamics of long-range interacting spin models, and hybrid platforms for force and spin sensing. We present a general numerical framework for treating the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of such models based on matrix product states. Our approach applies for generic spin-boson systems: it treats any spatial and operator dependence of the two-body spinboson coupling and places no restrictions on relative energy scales. We show that the full counting statistics of collective spin measurements and infidelity of quantum simulation due to spin-boson entanglement, both of which are difficult to obtain by other techniques, are readily calculable in our approach. We benchmark our method using a recently developed exact solution for a particular spin-boson coupling relevant to trapped ion quantum simulators. Finally, we show how decoherence can be incorporated within our framework using the method of quantum trajectories, and study the dynamics of an open-system spin-boson model with spatially non-uniform spin-boson coupling relevant for trapped atomic ion crystals in the presence of molecular ion impurities.

Physical review letters, Jan 4, 2016

Recent experiments with dilute trapped Fermi gases observed that weak interactions can drasticall... more Recent experiments with dilute trapped Fermi gases observed that weak interactions can drastically modify spin transport dynamics and give rise to robust collective effects including global demagnetization, macroscopic spin waves, spin segregation, and spin self-rephasing. In this Letter, we develop a framework for studying the dynamics of weakly interacting fermionic gases following a spin-dependent change of the trapping potential which illuminates the interplay between spin, motion, Fermi statistics, and interactions. The key idea is the projection of the state of the system onto a set of lattice spin models defined on the single-particle mode space. Collective phenomena, including the global spreading of quantum correlations in real space, arise as a consequence of the long-ranged character of the spin model couplings. This approach achieves good agreement with prior measurements and suggests a number of directions for future experiments.

Physical Review A, 2015

Motivated by several experimental efforts to understand spin diffusion and transport in ultracold... more Motivated by several experimental efforts to understand spin diffusion and transport in ultracold fermionic gases, we study the spin dynamics of initially spin-polarized ensembles of harmonically trapped non-interacting spin-1/2 fermionic atoms, subjected to a magnetic field gradient. We obtain simple analytic expressions for spin observables in the presence of both constant and linear magnetic field gradients, with and without a spin-echo pulse, and at zero and finite temperatures. The analysis shows the relevance of spin-motional coupling in the non-interacting regime where the demagnetization decay rate at short times can be faster than the experimentally measured rates in the strongly interacting regime under similar trapping conditions. Our calculations also show that particle motion limits the ability of a spin-echo pulse to remove the effect of magnetic field inhomogeneity, and that a spin-echo pulse can instead lead to an increased decay of magnetization at times comparable to the trapping period.

Science (New York, N.Y.), Jan 10, 2016

Quantum simulation of spin models can provide insight into problems that are difficult or impossi... more Quantum simulation of spin models can provide insight into problems that are difficult or impossible to study with classical computers. Trapped ions are an established platform for quantum simulation, but only systems with fewer than 20 ions have demonstrated quantum correlations. We studied quantum spin dynamics arising from an engineered, homogeneous Ising interaction in a two-dimensional array of (9)Be(+) ions in a Penning trap. We verified entanglement in spin-squeezed states of up to 219 ions, directly observing 4.0 ± 0.9 decibels of spectroscopic enhancement, and observed states with non-Gaussian statistics consistent with oversqueezed states. The good agreement with ab initio theory that includes interactions and decoherence lays the groundwork for simulations of the transverse-field Ising model with variable-range interactions, which are generally intractable with classical methods.

Physical Review A, 2015

We analyze the properties of particles trapped in three-dimensional potentials formed from superi... more We analyze the properties of particles trapped in three-dimensional potentials formed from superimposed Gaussian beams, fully taking into account effects of potential anharmonicity and nonseparability. Although these effects are negligible in more conventional optical lattice experiments, they are essential for emerging ultracold atom developments. We focus in particular on two potentials utilized in current ultracold atom experiments: arrays of tightly focused optical tweezers and a one-dimensional optical lattice with transverse Gaussian confinement and highly excited transverse modes. Our main numerical tools are discrete variable representations (DVRs), which combine many favorable features of spectral and grid-based methods, such as the computational advantage of exponential convergence and the convenience of an analytical representation of Hamiltonian matrix elements. Optimizations, such as symmetry adaptations and variational methods built on top of DVR methods, are presented and their convergence properties discussed. We also present a quantitative analysis of the degree of non-separability of eigenstates, borrowing ideas from the theory of matrix product states (MPSs), leading to both conceptual and computational gains. Beyond developing numerical methodologies, we present results for construction of optimally localized Wannier functions and tunneling and interaction matrix elements in optical lattices and tweezers relevant for constructing effective models for many-body physics.

Physical Review X, 2015

Interacting spin systems are of fundamental relevance in different areas of physics, as well as i... more Interacting spin systems are of fundamental relevance in different areas of physics, as well as in quantum information science, and biology. These spin models represent the simplest, yet not fully understood, manifestation of quantum many-body systems. An important outstanding problem is the efficient numerical computation of dynamics in large spin systems. Here we propose a new semiclassical method to study many-body spin dynamics in generic spin lattice models. The method is based on a discrete Monte Carlo sampling in phase-space in the framework of the so-called truncated Wigner approximation. Comparisons with analytical and numerically exact calculations demonstrate the power of the technique. They show that it correctly reproduces the dynamics of one-and two-point correlations and spin squeezing at short times, thus capturing entanglement. Our results open the possibility to study the quantum dynamics accessible to recent experiments in regimes where other numerical methods are inapplicable.

arXiv (Cornell University), Oct 1, 2019

Interactions between atoms and light in optical cavities provide a means of investigating collect... more Interactions between atoms and light in optical cavities provide a means of investigating collective (many-body) quantum physics in controlled environments. Such ensembles of atoms in cavities have been proposed for studying collective quantum spin models, where the atomic internal levels mimic a spin degree of freedom and interact through long-range interactions tunable by changing the cavity parameters [1-4]. Non-classical steady-state phases arising from the interplay between atom-light interactions and dissipation of light from the cavity have previously been investigated [5-11]. These systems also offer the opportunity to study dynamical phases of matter that are precluded from existence at equilibrium but can be stabilized by driving a system out of equilibrium [12-16], as demonstrated by recent experiments [17-22]. These phases can also display universal behaviours akin to standard equilibrium phase transitions [8, 23, 24]. Here, we use an ensemble of about a million strontium-88 atoms in an optical cavity to simulate a collective Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model [25, 26], an iconic model in quantum magnetism, and report the observation of distinct dynamical phases of matter in this system. Our system allows us to probe the dependence of dynamical phase transitions on system size, initial state and other parameters. These observations can be linked to similar dynamical phases in related systems, including the Josephson effect in superfluid helium [27], or coupled atomic [28] and solid-state polariton [29] condensates. The system itself offers potential for generation of metrologically useful entangled states in optical transitions, which could permit quantum enhancement in state-of-the-art atomic clocks [30, 31].

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 28, 2018

A proposed paradigm for out-of-equilibrium quantum systems is that an analogue of quantum phase t... more A proposed paradigm for out-of-equilibrium quantum systems is that an analogue of quantum phase transitions exists between parameter regimes of qualitatively distinct time-dependent behavior. Here, we present evidence of such a transition between dynamical phases in a cold-atom quantum simulator of the collective Heisenberg model. Our simulator encodes spin in the hyperfine states of ultracold fermionic potassium. Atoms are pinned in a network of single-particle modes, whose spatial extent emulates the long-range interactions of traditional quantum magnets. We find that below a critical interaction strength, magnetization of an initially polarized fermionic gas decays quickly, while above the transition point, the magnetization becomes long-lived, due to an energy gap that protects against dephasing by the inhomogeneous axial field. Our quantum simulation reveals a non-equilibrium transition predicted to exist but not yet directly observed in quenched s-wave superconductors.

Science, 2022

Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions enables the realization of dis... more Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions enables the realization of distinct quantum phenomena. Using an electric field gradient, we demonstrated layer-resolved state preparation and imaging of ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules confined to two-dimensional planes in an optical lattice. The rotational coherence was maximized by rotating the electric field relative to the light polarization for state-insensitive trapping. Spatially separated molecules in adjacent layers interact through dipolar spin exchange of rotational angular momentum; by adjusting these interactions, we regulated the local chemical reaction rate. The resonance width of the exchange process vastly exceeded the dipolar interaction energy, an effect attributed to thermal energy. This work realized precise control of interacting molecules, enabling electric field microscopy on subwavelength scales and allowing access to unexplored physics in two-dimensional systems.

Developing the isolation and control of ultracold atomic systems to the level of single quanta ha... more Developing the isolation and control of ultracold atomic systems to the level of single quanta has led to significant advances in quantum sensing, yet demonstrating a quantum advantage in real world applications by harnessing entanglement remains a core task. Here, we realize a many-body quantum-enhanced sensor to detect weak displacements and electric fields using a large crystal of ∼ 150 trapped ions. The center of mass vibrational mode of the crystal serves as high-Q mechanical oscillator and the collective electronic spin as the measurement device. By entangling the oscillator and the collective spin before the displacement is applied and by controlling the coherent dynamics via a many-body echo we are able to utilize the delicate spin-motion entanglement to map the displacement into a spin rotation such that we avoid quantum back-action and cancel detrimental thermal noise. We report quantum enhanced sensitivity to displacements of 8.8 ± 0.4dB below the standard quantum limit a...

Physical Review Letters, 2020

We propose a new dynamical method to connect equilibrium quantum phase transitions and quantum co... more We propose a new dynamical method to connect equilibrium quantum phase transitions and quantum coherence using out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs). Adopting the iconic Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick and transverse-field Ising models as illustrative examples, we show that an abrupt change in coherence and entanglement of the ground state across a quantum phase transition is observable in the spectrum of multiple quantum coherence (MQC) intensities, which are a special type of OTOC. We also develop a robust protocol to obtain the relevant OTOCs using quasiadiabatic quenches through the ground state phase diagram. Our scheme allows for the detection of OTOCs without time-reversal of coherent dynamics, making it applicable and important for a broad range of current experiments where time-reversal cannot be achieved by inverting the sign of the underlying Hamiltonian.

Science, 2021

Quantum enhanced sensing Harnessing quantum mechanical effects is expected to provide an advantag... more Quantum enhanced sensing Harnessing quantum mechanical effects is expected to provide an advantage over classical sensing technology. By entangling the center-of-mass motional state of approximately 150 ions trapped in a two-dimensional Coulomb crystal with their collective spin state, Gilmore et al . demonstrate a quantum-enhanced measurement sensitivity of displacement and electric field. Such enhanced sensitivity could, for instance, find application in probing proposed weak interactions between dark matter and normal matter, as well as enhancing gravitational wave detection. —ISO

Physical Review Letters, 2019

Arrays of atoms trapped in optical tweezers combine features of programmable analog quantum simul... more Arrays of atoms trapped in optical tweezers combine features of programmable analog quantum simulators with atomic quantum sensors. Here we propose variational quantum algorithms, tailored for tweezer arrays as programmable quantum sensors, capable of generating entangled states ondemand for precision metrology. The scheme is designed to generate metrological enhancement by optimizing it in a feedback loop on the quantum device itself, thus preparing the best entangled states given the available quantum resources. We apply our ideas to generate spin-squeezed states on Sr atom tweezer arrays, where finite-range interactions are generated through Rydberg dressing. The complexity of experimental variational optimization of our quantum circuits is expected to scale favorably with system size. We numerically show our approach to be robust to noise, and surpassing known protocols.

Science Advances, 2019

Ultracold fermions provide a new testbed for dynamical phases of quantum matter forbidden by equi... more Ultracold fermions provide a new testbed for dynamical phases of quantum matter forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics.

Nature Physics, 2018

Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave ... more Quantum statistics and symmetrization dictate that identical fermions do not interact via s-wave collisions. However, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), fermions prepared in identical internal states with distinct momenta become distinguishable. The resulting strongly interacting system can exhibit exotic topological and pairing behaviors 1-4 , many of which are yet to be observed in condensed matter systems. Ultracold atomic gases offer a promising pathway for simulating these rich phenomena 5-8. Two recent experiments reported the observation of single atom SOC in optical lattice clocks (OLCs) based on alkaline-1

Physical review letters, Jan 12, 2018

We show that Ramsey spectroscopy of fermionic alkaline-earth atoms in a square-well trap provides... more We show that Ramsey spectroscopy of fermionic alkaline-earth atoms in a square-well trap provides an efficient and accurate estimate for the eigenspectrum of a density matrix whose n copies are stored in the nuclear spins of n such atoms. This spectrum estimation is enabled by the high symmetry of the interaction Hamiltonian, dictated, in turn, by the decoupling of the nuclear spin from the electrons and by the shape of the square-well trap. Practical performance of this procedure and its potential applications to quantum computing and time keeping with alkaline-earth atoms are discussed.

Physical review letters, Jan 26, 2018

Out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) characterize the scrambling, or delocalization, of quantum... more Out-of-time-order correlations (OTOCs) characterize the scrambling, or delocalization, of quantum information over all the degrees of freedom of a system and thus have been proposed as a proxy for chaos in quantum systems. Recent experimental progress in measuring OTOCs calls for a more thorough understanding of how these quantities characterize complex quantum systems, most importantly in terms of the buildup of entanglement. Although a connection between OTOCs and entanglement entropy has been derived, the latter only quantifies entanglement in pure systems and is hard to access experimentally. In this work, we formally demonstrate that the multiple-quantum coherence spectra, a specific family of OTOCs well known in NMR, can be used as an entanglement witness and as a direct probe of multiparticle entanglement. Our results open a path to experimentally testing the fascinating idea that entanglement is the underlying glue that links thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and quantu...

Physical review letters, Jan 17, 2018

Cavity QED is a promising avenue for the deterministic generation of entangled and spin-squeezed ... more Cavity QED is a promising avenue for the deterministic generation of entangled and spin-squeezed states for quantum metrology. One archetypal scheme generates squeezing via collective one-axis twisting interactions. However, we show that in implementations using optical transitions in long-lived atoms the achievable squeezing is fundamentally limited by collectively enhanced emission into the cavity mode which is generated in parallel with the cavity-mediated spin-spin interactions. We propose an alternative scheme which generates a squeezed state that is protected from collective emission, and investigate its sensitivity to realistic sources of experimental noise and imperfections.

Nature Physics, 2017

Controllable arrays of ions and ultracold atoms can simulate complex many-body phenomena and may ... more Controllable arrays of ions and ultracold atoms can simulate complex many-body phenomena and may provide insights into unsolved problems in modern science. To this end, experimentally feasible protocols for quantifying the buildup of quantum correlations and coherence are needed, as performing full state tomography does not scale favourably with the number of particles. Here we develop and experimentally demonstrate such a protocol, which uses time reversal of the many-body dynamics to measure out-of-time-order correlation functions (OTOCs) in a long-range Ising spin quantum simulator with more than 100 ions in a Penning trap. By measuring a family of OTOCs as a function of a tunable parameter we obtain fine-grained information about the state of the system encoded in the multiple quantum coherence spectrum, extract the quantum state purity, and demonstrate the buildup of up to 8-body correlations. Future applications of this protocol could enable studies of many-body localization, quantum phase transitions, and tests of the holographic duality between quantum and gravitational systems.

Physical Review A, 2016

The global coupling of few-level quantum systems ("spins") to a discrete set of bosonic modes is ... more The global coupling of few-level quantum systems ("spins") to a discrete set of bosonic modes is a key ingredient for many applications in quantum science, including large-scale entanglement generation, quantum simulation of the dynamics of long-range interacting spin models, and hybrid platforms for force and spin sensing. We present a general numerical framework for treating the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of such models based on matrix product states. Our approach applies for generic spin-boson systems: it treats any spatial and operator dependence of the two-body spinboson coupling and places no restrictions on relative energy scales. We show that the full counting statistics of collective spin measurements and infidelity of quantum simulation due to spin-boson entanglement, both of which are difficult to obtain by other techniques, are readily calculable in our approach. We benchmark our method using a recently developed exact solution for a particular spin-boson coupling relevant to trapped ion quantum simulators. Finally, we show how decoherence can be incorporated within our framework using the method of quantum trajectories, and study the dynamics of an open-system spin-boson model with spatially non-uniform spin-boson coupling relevant for trapped atomic ion crystals in the presence of molecular ion impurities.

Physical review letters, Jan 4, 2016

Recent experiments with dilute trapped Fermi gases observed that weak interactions can drasticall... more Recent experiments with dilute trapped Fermi gases observed that weak interactions can drastically modify spin transport dynamics and give rise to robust collective effects including global demagnetization, macroscopic spin waves, spin segregation, and spin self-rephasing. In this Letter, we develop a framework for studying the dynamics of weakly interacting fermionic gases following a spin-dependent change of the trapping potential which illuminates the interplay between spin, motion, Fermi statistics, and interactions. The key idea is the projection of the state of the system onto a set of lattice spin models defined on the single-particle mode space. Collective phenomena, including the global spreading of quantum correlations in real space, arise as a consequence of the long-ranged character of the spin model couplings. This approach achieves good agreement with prior measurements and suggests a number of directions for future experiments.

Physical Review A, 2015

Motivated by several experimental efforts to understand spin diffusion and transport in ultracold... more Motivated by several experimental efforts to understand spin diffusion and transport in ultracold fermionic gases, we study the spin dynamics of initially spin-polarized ensembles of harmonically trapped non-interacting spin-1/2 fermionic atoms, subjected to a magnetic field gradient. We obtain simple analytic expressions for spin observables in the presence of both constant and linear magnetic field gradients, with and without a spin-echo pulse, and at zero and finite temperatures. The analysis shows the relevance of spin-motional coupling in the non-interacting regime where the demagnetization decay rate at short times can be faster than the experimentally measured rates in the strongly interacting regime under similar trapping conditions. Our calculations also show that particle motion limits the ability of a spin-echo pulse to remove the effect of magnetic field inhomogeneity, and that a spin-echo pulse can instead lead to an increased decay of magnetization at times comparable to the trapping period.

Science (New York, N.Y.), Jan 10, 2016

Quantum simulation of spin models can provide insight into problems that are difficult or impossi... more Quantum simulation of spin models can provide insight into problems that are difficult or impossible to study with classical computers. Trapped ions are an established platform for quantum simulation, but only systems with fewer than 20 ions have demonstrated quantum correlations. We studied quantum spin dynamics arising from an engineered, homogeneous Ising interaction in a two-dimensional array of (9)Be(+) ions in a Penning trap. We verified entanglement in spin-squeezed states of up to 219 ions, directly observing 4.0 ± 0.9 decibels of spectroscopic enhancement, and observed states with non-Gaussian statistics consistent with oversqueezed states. The good agreement with ab initio theory that includes interactions and decoherence lays the groundwork for simulations of the transverse-field Ising model with variable-range interactions, which are generally intractable with classical methods.

Physical Review A, 2015

We analyze the properties of particles trapped in three-dimensional potentials formed from superi... more We analyze the properties of particles trapped in three-dimensional potentials formed from superimposed Gaussian beams, fully taking into account effects of potential anharmonicity and nonseparability. Although these effects are negligible in more conventional optical lattice experiments, they are essential for emerging ultracold atom developments. We focus in particular on two potentials utilized in current ultracold atom experiments: arrays of tightly focused optical tweezers and a one-dimensional optical lattice with transverse Gaussian confinement and highly excited transverse modes. Our main numerical tools are discrete variable representations (DVRs), which combine many favorable features of spectral and grid-based methods, such as the computational advantage of exponential convergence and the convenience of an analytical representation of Hamiltonian matrix elements. Optimizations, such as symmetry adaptations and variational methods built on top of DVR methods, are presented and their convergence properties discussed. We also present a quantitative analysis of the degree of non-separability of eigenstates, borrowing ideas from the theory of matrix product states (MPSs), leading to both conceptual and computational gains. Beyond developing numerical methodologies, we present results for construction of optimally localized Wannier functions and tunneling and interaction matrix elements in optical lattices and tweezers relevant for constructing effective models for many-body physics.

Physical Review X, 2015

Interacting spin systems are of fundamental relevance in different areas of physics, as well as i... more Interacting spin systems are of fundamental relevance in different areas of physics, as well as in quantum information science, and biology. These spin models represent the simplest, yet not fully understood, manifestation of quantum many-body systems. An important outstanding problem is the efficient numerical computation of dynamics in large spin systems. Here we propose a new semiclassical method to study many-body spin dynamics in generic spin lattice models. The method is based on a discrete Monte Carlo sampling in phase-space in the framework of the so-called truncated Wigner approximation. Comparisons with analytical and numerically exact calculations demonstrate the power of the technique. They show that it correctly reproduces the dynamics of one-and two-point correlations and spin squeezing at short times, thus capturing entanglement. Our results open the possibility to study the quantum dynamics accessible to recent experiments in regimes where other numerical methods are inapplicable.