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arXiv:1104.3080 · Physical Review Letters

Two-dimensional Rydberg Gases and the Quantum Hard-Squares Model

Siyuan Ji, Cenap Ates, Igor Lesanovsky

Published Aug 4, 2011• 65 citations
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Abstract

We study a two-dimensional lattice gas of atoms that are photoexcited to Rydberg states in which they interact via the van der Waals interaction. We explore the regime of dominant nearest-neighbor interaction where this system is intimately connected with a quantum version of Baxter's hard-squares model. We show that the strongly correlated ground state of the Rydberg gas can be analytically described by a projected entangled pair state that constitutes the ground state of the quantum hard-squares model. This correspondence allows us to identify a phase boundary where the Rydberg gas undergoes a transition from a disordered (liquid) phase to an ordered (solid) phase.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.107.060406

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•Jul 8, 2015•0 citations
We study a two-dimensional lattice gas of atoms that are photoexcited to Rydberg states in which they interact via the van der Waals interaction. We explore the regime of dominant nearest-neighbor interaction where this system is intimately connected with a quantum version of Baxter's hard-squares model. We show that the strongly correlated ground state of the Rydberg gas can be analytically described by a projected entangled pair state that constitutes the ground state of the quantum hard-squares model. This correspondence allows us to identify a phase boundary where the Rydberg gas undergoes a transition from a disordered (liquid) phase to an ordered (solid) phase.
We describe the zero-temperature phase diagram of a model of a two-dimensional square-lattice array of neutral atoms, excited into Rydberg states and interacting via strong van der Waals interactions. Using the density-matrix renormalization group algorithm, we map out the phase diagram and obtain a rich variety of phases featuring complex density wave orderings, upon varying lattice spacing and laser detuning. While some of these phases result from the classical optimization of the van der Waals energy, we also find intrinsically quantum-ordered phases stabilized by quantum fluctuations. These phases are surrounded by novel quantum phase transitions, which we analyze by finite-size scaling numerics and Landau theories. Our work highlights Rydberg quantum simulators in higher dimensions as promising platforms to realize exotic many-body phenomena.
While dissipative Rydberg gases exhibit unique possibilities to tune dissipation and interaction properties, very little is known about the quantum many-body physics of such long-range interacting open quantum systems. We theoretically analyze the steady state of a van der Waals interacting Rydberg gas in an optical lattice based on a variational treatment that also includes long-range correlations necessary to describe the physics of the Rydberg blockade, i.e., the inhibition of neighboring Rydberg excitations by strong interactions. In contrast to the ground state phase diagram, we find that the steady state undergoes a single first order phase transition from a blockaded Rydberg gas to a facilitation phase where the blockade is lifted. The first order line terminates in a critical point when including sufficiently strong dephasing, enabling a highly promising route to study dissipative criticality in these systems. In some regimes, we also find good quantitative agreement of the phase boundaries with previously employed short-range models, however, with the actual steady states exhibiting strikingly different behavior.
Competing short- and long-range interactions represent distinguished ingredients for the formation of complex quantum many-body phases. Their study is hard to realize with conventional quantum simulators. In this regard, Rydberg atoms provide an exception as their excited manifold of states have both density-density and exchange interactions whose strength and range can vary considerably. Focusing on one-dimensional systems, we leverage the Van der Waals and dipole-dipole interactions of the Rydberg atoms to obtain the zero-temperature phase diagram for a uniform chain and a dimer model. For the uniform chain, we can influence the boundaries between ordered phases and a Luttinger liquid phase. For the dimerized case, a new type of bond-order-density-wave phase is identified. This demonstrates the versatility of the Rydberg platform in studying physics involving short- and long-ranged interactions simultaneously.
We investigate a hard-square lattice gas on the square lattice by means of transfer-matrix and Monte Carlo methods. The size of the hard squares is equal to two lattice constants, so the simultaneous occupation of nearest-neighbor sites as well as of next-to-nearest-neighbor sites is excluded. Near saturation of the particle density, this system is known to undergo a phase transition to one out of four partially ordered phases. We find that this transition displays strong finite-size corrections to scaling and that the correlation functions deviate from isotropy to rather large distances. In contrast with an earlier study, we find that the critical temperature exponent of the transition is not Ising-like.
The competition between resonant optical excitation of Rydberg states of atoms and their strong, long-range van der Waals interaction results in spatial ordering of Rydberg excitations in a two-dimensional lattice gas, as observed in a recent experiment of Schau\ss{} et al. [Nature (London) 491, 87 (2012)]. Here we use semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations to obtain stationary states for hundreds of atoms in finite-size lattices. We show the formation of regular spatial structures of Rydberg excitations in a system of increasing size, and find highly sub-Poissonian distribution of the number of Rydberg excitations characterized by a large negative value of the Mandel QQQ parameter which is nearly independent of the system size.
Recent achievements in ultra-cold experiments have made quantum simulation of interacting many-body systems possible in a well controllable environment. Of many candidates as quantum simulators, Rydberg atoms have been extensively utilised due to its exaggerated and fascinating atomic properties. Example includes high susceptibility to electric fields and relatively long life time in comparison to atoms in low-lying states. The tunable interaction between Rydberg atoms have made them even more versatile in simulating quantum many-body systems, e.g. interacting spin-1/2 particles. We will start the thesis by reviewing these properties of Rydberg atoms and explain how they lead to the Rydberg lattice gases that of interest. Following the review of the essential knowledge of Rydberg atoms, we first study the ground states of interacting Rydberg lattice gases in both one-dimension and two-dimensions. The many-body system we are interested in is initially prepared in a Mott-insulator state, with each lattice site containing one atom that is laser coupled to its highly excited Rydberg state. The extremely huge van der Waals interactions between Rydberg atoms at close distance leads to an interesting Rydberg blockade effect. As we shall show, these strong interactions lead to rich phases and critical behaviours in the ground states of the many-body Hamiltonians that describes the systems. The aim of the first three chapters is to analyse these ground states in detail. Having investigated the static properties, we then move on to study the dynamical behaviour of a class of generic spin models which can in principal be realised by Rydberg lattice gases with tunable blockade radius. By deriving an effective master equation, and comparing it to the exact calculation, we will demonstrate how different pure initial states eventually evolve to the same equilibrium state and analysed in detail the time evolution and the steady state.