Rydberg atoms, characterized by their strong and long-range dipole-dipole interactions, provide a versatile platform for exploring intriguing collective and many-body effects. Recently, the experimental realization of these effects in dense ensembles and reconfigurable atomic arrays has attracted significant interest, particularly for applications in quantum simulations and non-equilibrium physics. This review focuses on such recent development, discussing the theoretical foundations of the interactions between Rydberg atoms and the ensuing many-body physics, while providing a critical survey of experimental techniques for their precise manipulation and observation. We further discuss recent breakthroughs in leveraging Rydberg collective effects to probe novel many-body phases and non-equilibrium dynamics of these systems. By synthesizing theoretical insights with experimental milestones, we provide a comprehensive perspective on this rapidly evolving field and its transformative potential for future quantum technologies.
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arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2402.13657 by other authors
Rydberg atoms, characterized by their strong and long-range dipole-dipole interactions, provide a versatile platform for exploring intriguing collective and many-body effects. Recently, the experimental realization of these effects in dense ensembles and reconfigurable atomic arrays has attracted significant interest, particularly for applications in quantum simulations and non-equilibrium physics. This review focuses on such recent development, discussing the theoretical foundations of the interactions between Rydberg atoms and the ensuing many-body physics, while providing a critical survey of experimental techniques for their precise manipulation and observation. We further discuss recent breakthroughs in leveraging Rydberg collective effects to probe novel many-body phases and non-equilibrium dynamics of these systems. By synthesizing theoretical insights with experimental milestones, we provide a comprehensive perspective on this rapidly evolving field and its transformative potential for future quantum technologies.
In the last twenty years, Rydberg atoms have become a versatile and much studied system for implementing quantum many-body systems in the framework of quantum computation and quantum simulation. However, even in the absence of coherent evolution Rydberg systems exhibit interesting and non-trivial many-body phenomena such as kinetic constraints and non-equilibrium phase transitions that are relevant in a number of research fields. Here we review our recent work on such systems, where dissipation leads to incoherent dynamics and also to population decay. We show that those two effects, together with the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms, give rise to a number of intriguing phenomena that make cold Rydberg atoms an attractive test-bed for classical many-body processes and quantum generalizations thereof.
In the last twenty years, Rydberg atoms have become a versatile and much studied system for implementing quantum many-body systems in the framework of quantum computation and quantum simulation. However, even in the absence of coherent evolution Rydberg systems exhibit interesting and non-trivial many-body phenomena such as kinetic constraints and non-equilibrium phase transitions that are relevant in a number of research fields. Here we review our recent work on such systems, where dissipation leads to incoherent dynamics and also to population decay. We show that those two effects, together with the strong interactions between Rydberg atoms, give rise to a number of intriguing phenomena that make cold Rydberg atoms an attractive test-bed for classical many-body processes and quantum generalizations thereof.
Dense atom ensembles with Rydberg excitations display intriguing collective effects mediated by their strong, long-range dipole–dipole interactions. These collective effects, often modeled using Rydberg superatoms, have gained significant attention across various fields due to their potential applications in quantum information processing and quantum optics. In this review article, we delve into the theoretical foundations of Rydberg interactions and explore experimental techniques for their manipulation and detection. We also discuss the latest advancements in harnessing Rydberg collective effects for quantum computation and optical quantum technologies. By synthesizing insights from theoretical studies and experimental demonstrations, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of this rapidly evolving field and its potential impact on the future of quantum technologies.
Non-Hermitian physics exhibits unique physical properties beyond those of traditional Hermitian systems, such as symmetry breaking, the emergence of exceptional points, topological phase transitions, and more. These phenomena have been extensively studied across various platforms, including quantum optics, cold atom systems, superconducting circuits, and condensed matter physics. Rydberg atoms, with their long-range interactions and flexible controllability, provide a promising platform for the experimental realization of non-Hermitian physics. This review primarily summarizes the key experimental and theoretical achievements in the field of non-Hermitian physics within Rydberg atomic systems in recent years. It outlines the fundamental construction of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, reveals the effective dissipation mechanisms induced by Rydberg atomic interactions, and discusses their impact on spectral properties and symmetry breaking. These studies not only deepen the understanding of quantum phase transitions in non-Hermitian many-body systems but also highlight the unique value of Rydberg atomic platforms in realizing and controlling topological states.
The interaction of many-body quantum system is a critical problem to be solved in the field of quantum information science. Rydberg atoms have large dipole moment, enabling them to interact with others in a long range, thereby offering us a powerful tool for studying many-body quantum physics. Meanwhile, atoms in the ground state are stable, which makes it easy to manipulate them. Therefore, Rydberg-atom many-body system is an ideal platform for studying the interaction of many-body quantum system. Studies of Rydberg-atom many-body system may contribute to understanding the properties of many-body system and putting the interaction of many-body quantum system into practical applications. In this review, we introduce some studies of properties of interaction of Rydberg-atom many-body system, including the Rydberg excitation blockade, the variation of Rabi frequencies of the many-body system and special spatial distribution of Rydberg atoms in a many-body system. Firstly, the Rydberg excitation blockade, the most important property in the Rydberg-atom many-body system, indicates that atoms’ excitation will be suppressed in a certain range around one Rydberg excitation because the interaction between the Rydberg excitation and atoms leads the energy level to shift so that atoms cannot be excited by the same pulse. Secondly, there is a collective Rabi frequency in the system, which is proportional to the square of the number of atoms in the suppressed area. And additionally, because of the Rydberg blockade effect, Rydberg excitations in the ensemble cannot be at casual positions but a regular distribution is formed. Besides the studies of properties, several researches on the applications of interaction of Rydberg-atom many-body system are introduced, including single-photon source, quantum storage, single-atom imaging, quantum simulation, etc. These applications contribute to the development of quantum community and quantum computing, which may bring us a quantum-technology time. Finally, we discuss the future development of Rydberg-atom many-body system and its further applications. Further development includes the development of many-body system with a larger number of atoms, the development of many-body system of atoms with more than one electron, and some other specific subjects based on many-system, such as Rydberg dimer and topological phase. Also some promising applications such as in studying optimization problem by quantum annealing, may become true.
Quantum simulation has been developed extensively over the past decades, widely applied to different models to explore dynamics in the quantum regime. Rydberg atoms have strong dipole–dipole interactions and interact with each other over a long distance, which makes it straightforward to build many-body interacting quantum systems to simulate specific models. Additionally, neutral atoms are easily manipulated due to their weak interactions. These advantages make Rydberg many-body system an ideal platform to implement quantum simulations. This paper reviews several quantum simulations for different models based on Rydberg many-body systems, including quantum Ising models in one dimension and two dimensions mainly for quantum magnetism, XY model for excitation transport, SSH model for symmetry-protected topological phases, and critical self-organized behaviors in many-body systems. Besides, some challenges and promising directions of quantum simulations based on Rydberg many-body system are discussed in this paper.