We show that the effective spin-spin interaction between three-level atoms confined in a multimode optical cavity is long-ranged and sign changing, like the RKKY interaction; therefore, ensembles of such atoms subject to frozen-in positional randomness can realize spin systems having disordered and frustrated interactions. We argue that, whenever the atoms couple to sufficiently many cavity modes, the cavity-mediated interactions give rise to a spin glass. In addition, we show that the quantum dynamics of cavity-confined spin systems is that of a Bose-Hubbard model with strongly disordered hopping but no on-site disorder; this model exhibits a random-singlet glass phase, absent in conventional optical-lattice realizations. We briefly discuss experimental signatures of the realizable phases.
We show that the effective spin-spin interaction between three-level atoms confined in a multimode optical cavity is long-ranged and sign changing, like the RKKY interaction; therefore, ensembles of such atoms subject to frozen-in positional randomness can realize spin systems having disordered and frustrated interactions. We argue that, whenever the atoms couple to sufficiently many cavity modes, the cavity-mediated interactions give rise to a spin glass. In addition, we show that the quantum dynamics of cavity-confined spin systems is that of a Bose-Hubbard model with strongly disordered hopping but no on-site disorder; this model exhibits a random-singlet glass phase, absent in conventional optical-lattice realizations. We briefly discuss experimental signatures of the realizable phases.
We provide strong evidence that the effective spin-spin interaction in a multimodal confocal optical cavity gives rise to a self-induced glassy phase, which emerges exclusively from the peculiar Euclidean correlations and is not related to the presence of disorder as in standard spin glasses. As recently shown, this spin-spin effective interaction is both nonlocal and nontranslational invariant, and randomness in the atoms' positions produces a spin glass phase. Here we consider the simplest feasible disorder-free setting, where atoms form a one-dimensional regular chain and we study the thermodynamics of the resulting effective Ising model. We present extensive results showing that the system has a low-temperature glassy phase. The model depends on the adimensional parameter α=(a/w_{0})^{2}, a being a lattice spacing and w_{0} an interaction length scale. Notably, for rational values of α=p/q, the number of metastable states at low temperature grows exponentially with q and the problem of finding the ground state rapidly becomes computationally intractable, suggesting that the system develops high-energy barriers and ergodicity breaking occurs.
"Spatially modulated ordered states, such as crystals, liquid crystals, and antiferromagnets, are ubiquitous in nature but relatively difficult to realize in ultracold atomic systems. In the present work, we present a scheme for generating controllable cavity-mediated interactions between atoms, and show that these interactions give rise to a crystallization transition in the case of a transversely pumped optical cavity. We focus on the case of multimode cavities, in which the interactions are relatively local and the range of possible ordered configurations (and consequently of low-energy fluctuations) is large; as we show, the crystallization transition for a Bose-Einstein condensate in a multimode cavity is driven first-order by fluctuations, through the Brazovskii effect. The ordered state to which this crystallization transition gives rise is a ""supersolid,"" possessing both superfluid and solid order. We address the crystallization transition and the properties of the ordered state, discuss the experimental feasibility of observing these, and finally show how ordering in layered systems of atoms is geometrically frustrated. We then introduce a more straightforward realization of frustrated cavity-mediated interactions, viz. systems of randomly-positioned spins in multimode cavities. We show by means of a mapping to a variant of the Hopfield associative-memory model that such systems exhibit a spin-glass phase. Finally, we consider a different ultracold-atomic setting---that of spin-orbit-coupled Bose gases---in which the Brazovskii effect has a profound influence on the low-temperature phases, leading to a universal preference for stripe-like ordering at zero temperature and bosonic pair condensation at nonzero temperatures."
We study models of itinerant spinless fermions with random long-range interactions. We motivate such models from descriptions of fermionic atoms in multimode optical cavities. The solution of an infinite-range model yields a metallic phase, which has glassy charge dynamics, and a localized glass phase with suppressed density of states at low energies. We compare these phases to the conventional disordered Fermi liquid, and the insulating electron glass of semiconductors. Prospects for the realization of such glassy phases in cold-atom systems are discussed.
In the context of ultracold atoms in multimode optical cavities, the appearance of a quantum-critical glass phase of atomic spins has been predicted recently. Due to the long-range nature of the cavity-mediated interactions, but also the presence of a driving laser and dissipative processes such as cavity photon loss, the quantum optical realization of glassy physics has no analog in condensed matter and could evolve into a ``cavity glass microscope'' for frustrated quantum systems out of equilibrium. Here we develop the nonequilibrium theory of the multimode Dicke model with quenched disorder and Markovian dissipation. Using a unified Keldysh path integral approach, we show that the defining features of a low-temperature glass, representing a critical phase of matter with algebraically decaying temporal correlation functions, are seen to be robust against the presence of dissipation due to cavity loss. The universality class, however, is modified due to the Markovian bath. The presence of strong disorder leads to an enhanced equilibration of atomic and photonic degrees of freedom, including the emergence of a common low-frequency effective temperature. The imprint of the atomic spin-glass physics onto the photon subsystem realizes a ``photon glass'' state and makes it possible to detect the glass state by standard experimental techniques of quantum optics. We provide an unambiguous characterization of the superradiant and glassy phases in terms of fluorescence spectroscopy, homodyne detection, and the temporal photon correlation function ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$.
Photons in multimode optical cavities can be used to mediate tailored interactions between atoms confined in the cavities. For atoms possessing multiple internal (i.e., “spin”) states, the spin–spin interactions mediated by the cavity are analogous in structure to the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida (RKKY) interaction between localized spins in metals. Thus, in particular, it is possible to use atoms in cavities to realize models of frustrated and/or disordered spin systems, including models that can be mapped on to the Hopfield network model and related models of associative memory. We explain how this realization of models of associative memory comes about and discuss ways in which the properties of these models can be probed in a cavity-based setting.
We study disordered interacting bosons described by the Bose-Hubbard model with Gaussian-distributed random tunneling amplitudes. It is shown that the off-diagonal disorder induces a spin-glass-like ground state, characterized by randomly frozen quantum-mechanical U(1) phases of bosons. To access criticality, we employ the "n-replica trick," as in the spin-glass theory, and the Trotter-Suzuki method for decomposition of the statistical density operator, along with numerical calculations. The interplay between disorder, quantum, and thermal fluctuations leads to phase diagrams exhibiting a glassy state of bosons, which are studied as a function of model parameters. The considered system may be relevant for quantum simulators of optical-lattice bosons, where the randomness can be introduced in a controlled way. The latter is supported by a proposition of experimental realization of the system in question.