The study of phase transitions and critical phenomena arising in quantum driven-dissipative systems, and whether a correspondence can be drawn to their equilibrium counterparts, is a pressing question in contemporary physics. The development of large-scale superconducting circuits provides an experimental platform for these theoretical models. We report an experimental study of a multimode dissipative first-order phase transition in a 1D Bose-Hubbard chain consisting of 21 superconducting resonators. This phase transition manifests itself as a simultaneous frequency jump in all resonator modes as the frequency or power of a pump tone is swept. By measuring the system’s emission spectrum through the transition, we characterize the dim-to-bright phase transition and construct the full phase diagram. We further perform time-dependent measurements of the switching between the two phases in the transition region, from which we corroborate the transition line and extract transition times ranging from a few ms up to 143 s. Our model, based on single-mode mean-field theory and cross-Kerr interactions, captures the features at moderate pump powers and quantitatively reproduces the transition line. Our results open a new window into nonequilibrium quantum many-body physics and mark a step toward realizing and understanding dissipative phase transitions in the thermodynamic limit using superconducting quantum circuits. In addition, our study opens new possibilities for sensing and cryo-switching applications.
The study of phase transitions and critical phenomena arising in quantum driven-dissipative systems, and whether a correspondence can be drawn to their equilibrium counterparts, is a pressing question in contemporary physics. The development of large-scale superconducting circuits provides an experimental platform for these theoretical models. We report an experimental study of a multimode dissipative first-order phase transition in a 1D Bose-Hubbard chain consisting of 21 superconducting resonators. This phase transition manifests itself as a simultaneous frequency jump in all resonator modes as the frequency or power of a pump tone is swept. By measuring the system’s emission spectrum through the transition, we characterize the dim-to-bright phase transition and construct the full phase diagram. We further perform time-dependent measurements of the switching between the two phases in the transition region, from which we corroborate the transition line and extract transition times ranging from a few ms up to 143 s. Our model, based on single-mode mean-field theory and cross-Kerr interactions, captures the features at moderate pump powers and quantitatively reproduces the transition line. Our results open a new window into nonequilibrium quantum many-body physics and mark a step toward realizing and understanding dissipative phase transitions in the thermodynamic limit using superconducting quantum circuits. In addition, our study opens new possibilities for sensing and cryo-switching applications.
In open quantum systems, dissipative phase transitions (DPTs) emerge from the interplay between unitary evolution, drive, and dissipation. While second-order DPTs have been predominantly investigated theoretically, first-order DPTs have been observed in single-photon-driven Kerr resonators. We present here an experimental and theoretical analysis of both first and second-order DPTs in a two-photon-driven superconducting Kerr resonator. We characterize the steady state at the critical points, showing squeezing below vacuum and the coexistence of phases with different photon numbers. Through time resolved measurements, we study the dynamics across the critical points and observe hysteresis cycles at the first-order DPT and spontaneous symmetry breaking at the second-order DPT. Extracting the timescales of the critical phenomena reveals slowing down across five orders of magnitude when scaling towards the thermodynamic limit. Our results showcase the engineering of criticality in superconducting circuits, advancing the use of parametric resonators for critically-enhanced quantum information applications.
The Bose-Hubbard model provides a foundational paradigm for exploring quantum phase transitions in many-body systems. This thesis presents a systematic investigation into this model and its extensions, designed to provide a clear path for understanding both the rich underlying physics and the sophisticated numerical methods required for its study. Our approach is sequential: we begin with the standard one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, introduce complexity via the extended model with long-range interactions, and conclude by analyzing the impact of dissipation in a cavity-coupled open quantum system.To navigate these regimes, we implement and apply a suite of powerful computational techniques, including Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG), finite-temperature Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC), and Mean-Field Theory (MFT). A significant component of this work is the detailed exposition of the implementation and logic of these numerical methods. Through their comparative application, we precisely characterize the equilibrium phase diagrams and benchmark the capabilities of each method. Crucially, our analysis of the open-system dynamics reveals that dissipation replaces the equilibrium phase diagram with one governed by non-equilibrium steady states (NESS), where the system evolves to either a stable solution or a persistent limit cycle.As such, this thesis is intended to serve a dual purpose: it is both a rigorous physical study of quantum phase transitions in a condensed matter system and a selfcontained pedagogical guide for researchers beginning to explore the phenomenology of quantum phase transitions through numerical schemes.
The photon blockade breakdown in a continuously driven cavity QED system has been proposed as a prime example for a first-order driven-dissipative quantum phase transition. However, the predicted scaling from a microscopic behavior—dominated by quantum fluctuations—to a macroscopic one—characterized by stable phases—and the associated exponents and phase diagram have not been observed so far. In this work we couple a single transmon qubit with a fixed coupling strength g to a superconducting cavity that is bandwidth κ tunable to controllably approach this thermodynamic limit. Even though the system remains microscopic, we observe its behavior becoming increasingly macroscopic as a function of g / κ . For the highest realized g / κ of approximately 287 , the system switches with a characteristic timescale as long as 6 s between a bright coherent state with approximately 8 × 10 3 intracavity photons and the vacuum state. This exceeds the microscopic timescales by 6 orders of magnitude and approaches the perfect hysteresis expected between two macroscopic attractors in the thermodynamic limit. These findings and interpretation are qualitatively supported by neoclassical theory and large-scale quantum-jump Monte Carlo simulations. Besides shedding more light on driven-dissipative physics in the limit of strong light-matter coupling, this system might also find applications in quantum sensing and metrology. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Quantum phase transitions play an important role in many-body systems and have been a research focus in conventional condensed-matter physics over the past few decades. Artificial atoms, such as superconducting qubits that can be individually manipulated, provide a new paradigm of realising and exploring quantum phase transitions by engineering an on-chip quantum simulator. Here we demonstrate experimentally the quantum critical behaviour in a highly controllable superconducting circuit, consisting of four qubits coupled to a common resonator mode. By off-resonantly driving the system to renormalize the critical spin-field coupling strength, we have observed a four-qubit nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in a dynamical manner; that is, we sweep the critical coupling strength over time and monitor the four-qubit scaled moments for a signature of a structural change of the system's eigenstates. Our observation of the nonequilibrium quantum phase transition, which is in good agreement with the driven Tavis-Cummings theory under decoherence, offers new experimental approaches towards exploring quantum phase transition-related science, such as scaling behaviours, parity breaking and long-range quantum correlations.
Josephson junctions are a fundamental building block of superconducting quantum circuits. They provide the nonlinearity required to realize quantum bits and enable a wide range of nonlinear phenomena central to quantum technologies. This thesis explores two superconducting systems in which this nonlinearity plays a central role. In the first part, we investigate a superconducting resonator terminated by a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), an arrangement of two Josephson junctions connected in parallel. The SQUID provides a tunable Kerr nonlinearity and allows the resonator to be driven parametrically. Under the combined action of the parametric drive, Kerr nonlinearity, and dissipation to the environment, the state of the resonator can undergo abrupt changes as the pump frequency or amplitude is varied. We interpret these changes within the framework of dissipative phase transitions (DPTs). By implementing a finite-component thermodynamic limit, we experimentally and theoretically investigate both first- and second-order DPTs in this system. We characterize their steady-state and dynamical signatures, including squeezing below vacuum, phase coexistence, hysteresis, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and critical slowing down. Finally, we exploit the enhanced susceptibility near the second-order critical point to implement a frequency-estimation protocol. We show that the estimation precision scales quadratically with the effective system size, demonstrating that finite-component DPTs can provide a quantum advantage in a sensing protocol. In the second part, we investigate a novel architecture for the readout of superconducting qubits. Conventional dispersive readout relies on a transverse interaction between a transmon and a resonator, which can lead to Purcell decay and measurement-induced state transitions, ultimately limiting the readout fidelity. To overcome these limitations, we implement a nonlinear coupling by galvanically connecting the transmon and resonator through a Josephson junction. This interaction provides a strong cross-Kerr coupling for clear state discrimination, but also introduces a detrimental transverse interaction. We experimentally show that the exchange part of the transverse interaction can be suppressed by adding a capacitor in parallel with the coupling junction while preserving the strong cross-Kerr coupling. In addition, we show that the same circuit acts as an intrinsic Purcell filter, protecting the qubit against Purcell decay. The coupling junction also induces a Kerr nonlinearity in the resonator, which we exploit to implement a bifurcation readout with a 99.4 % fidelity in a 68 ns integration time. This performance is achieved without a dedicated Purcell filter or a near-quantum-limited amplifier. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the engineering of nonlinear superconducting circuits to investigate dissipative phase transitions, exploit criticality for enhanced quantum sensing, and develop a novel qubit readout architecture enabling fast, high-fidelity measurement.
In this article, we theoretically investigate the first- and second-order quantum dissipative phase transitions of a three-mode cavity with a Hubbard interaction. In both types, there is a mean-field (MF) limit cycle phase where the local U(1) symmetry and the time-translational symmetry of the Liouvillian superoperator are spontaneously broken. In MF, this spontaneous symmetry breaking manifests itself through the appearance of an unconditionally and fully squeezed state at the cavity output, connected to the well-known Goldstone mode. By employing the Wigner function formalism, hence, properly including the quantum noise, we show that away from the thermodynamic limit and within the quantum regime, fluctuations notably limit the coherence time of the Goldstone mode due to the phase diffusion. Our theoretical predictions suggest that interacting multimode photonic systems are rich, versatile test beds for investigating the crossovers between the mean-field picture and quantum phase transitions, a problem that can be investigated in various platforms including superconducting circuits, semiconductor microcavities, atomic Rydberg polaritons, and cuprite excitons.