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arXiv:2608.05955

Dynamical phase transition in generalized Dicke model with strongly interacting trapped Rydberg ions

Manish Chaudhary, Rejish Nath, Weibin Li

quant-phSubmitted Aug 6, 2026• Announced Aug 7, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study dynamical phase transitions in the generalized dissipative Dicke model in an array of trapped Rydberg ions, where their density-density interactions compete with the collective spin-phonon coupling, laser driving and dissipation. This setting offers a versatile approach to study equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium many-body phenomena, as parameters, such as the Ising interaction, laser-ion and spin-phonon coupling can be tuned. Through analyzing the mean-field phase diagram, we find a variety of distinct phases and the emergence of a tricritical point that are sensitively dependent of the interaction between Rydberg ions. We then study the quantum dynamics for a finite system size and characterize parameter dependent dynamics using the spin average, entropy, and Loschmidt echo. Distinctive signatures of the dynamical phases, such as slow relaxation and metastability, arise near the phase transition. This analysis predicts rich quantum dynamics of the finite system that link to the non-equilibrium mean-field phases. Our study widens the exploration of collective and non-equilibrium phases in Dicke models, and reveals that the Rydberg ion interaction drastically affects the phase diagram and dynamics.

Comments
21 Pages, 7 figures

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We study dynamical phase transitions in the generalized dissipative Dicke model in an array of trapped Rydberg ions, where their density-density interactions compete with the collective spin-phonon coupling, laser driving and dissipation. This setting offers a versatile approach to study equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium many-body phenomena, as parameters, such as the Ising interaction, laser-ion and spin-phonon coupling can be tuned. Through analyzing the mean-field phase diagram, we find a variety of distinct phases and the emergence of a tricritical point that are sensitively dependent of the interaction between Rydberg ions. We then study the quantum dynamics for a finite system size and characterize parameter dependent dynamics using the spin average, entropy, and Loschmidt echo. Distinctive signatures of the dynamical phases, such as slow relaxation and metastability, arise near the phase transition. This analysis predicts rich quantum dynamics of the finite system that link to the non-equilibrium mean-field phases. Our study widens the exploration of collective and non-equilibrium phases in Dicke models, and reveals that the Rydberg ion interaction drastically affects the phase diagram and dynamics.
Trapped ions are a versatile platform for the investigation of quantum many-body phenomena, in particular for the study of scenarios where long-range interactions are mediated by phonons. Recent experiments have shown that the trapped ion platform can be augmented by exciting high-lying Rydberg states. This introduces controllable state-dependent interactions that are independent of the phonon structure. However, the many-body physics in this newly accessible regime is largely unexplored. We show that this system grants access to generalized Dicke model physics, where dipolar interactions between ions in Rydberg states drastically alter the collective nonequilibrium behavior. We analyze and classify the emerging dynamical phases and identify a host of nonequilibrium signatures such as multiphase coexistence regions and phonon-lasing regimes. We moreover show how they can be detected and characterized through the fluorescence signal of scattered photons. Our study thus highlights interesting capabilities of trapped Rydberg-ion systems for creating and detecting quantum nonequilibrium phases.
Temporal non-analyticities in the rate function of the Loschmidt echo manifests a class of dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) that has emerged as a powerful framework for understanding far-from-equilibrium many-body dynamics. While such DQPT has been extensively studied theoretically in spin-boson systems such as the Dicke model, their experimental observation remains elusive. In particular, the dynamics of DQPT in asymmetric spin subspaces and under the influence of spin dissipation are largely unexplored. Here, we report an experimental study of temporal DQPT in a generalized Dicke model using a trapped-ion quantum simulator. By coupling a linear chain of 40Ca+\rm{^{40}Ca^{+}}40Ca+ ions to a collective center-of-mass motional mode, we probe the quench dynamics starting from both symmetric and asymmetric initial states. We extract the rate function and identify temporal turn-around points that are in quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions. Additionally, we investigate the impact of spin dissipation on these dynamics. Our results establish an experimental platform for probing complex many-body out-of-equilibrium phenomena and advance the development of hybrid oscillator-spin quantum simulators.
We explore trapped ions as a setting to investigate nonequilibrium phases in a generalized Dicke model of dissipative spins coupled to phonon modes. We find a rich dynamical phase diagram including superradiantlike regimes, dynamical phase coexistence, and phonon-lasing behavior. A particular advantage of trapped ions is that these phases and transitions among them can be probed in situ through fluorescence. We demonstrate that the main physical insights are captured by a minimal model and consider an experimental realization with Ca+ ions trapped in a linear Paul trap with a dressing scheme to create effective two-level systems with a tunable dissipation rate.
The interplay between many-body interactions and controlled dissipation provides a rich setting for nonequilibrium quantum phases. We explore the superradiant phase transitions in a Rydberg-interacting open Dicke model with cavity loss and local dissipation. We find that the nonlinear feedback from atomic interactions stabilizes the atomic collective excited state and induces resonant collective motion, which can be further converted into robust superradiant oscillations with the inclusion of local dissipation. Beyond the mean-field approximation, we prove this system can support the finite-size local dissipative temporal order, i.e., continuous time crystal, from evidences of the decreasing damping of a finite-frequency Liouvillian mode and the linear-size scaling of quantum fluctuations. The correlation between the atomic colletive dynamics and the cavity photon number makes our findings easy to detect from output optical signal. By bridging interacting atomic matter and driven-dissipative cavity QED, our Rydberg-interacting Dicke model provides a unique spin-1/2 platform for exploring dynamical phase transitions and macroscopic temporal order in open quantum matter.
Abstract Far-from equilibrium dynamics that lead to self-organization are highly relevant to complex dynamical systems not only in physics, but also in life-, earth-, and social sciences. It is challenging however to find systems with sufficiently controllable parameters that allow quantitatively modelling of emergent properties. Here, we study a non-equilibrium phase transition and observe signatures of self-organized criticality in a dilute thermal vapour of atoms optically excited to strongly interacting Rydberg states. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) provides excellent control over the population dynamics and enables high-resolution probing of the driven-dissipative dynamics, which also exhibits phase bistability. Increased sensitivity compared to previous work allows us to reconstruct the complete phase diagram including in the vicinity of the critical point. We observe that interaction-induced energy shifts and enhanced decay only occur in one of the phases above a critical Rydberg population. This limits the application of generic mean-field models, however a modified, threshold-dependent approach is in qualitative agreement with experimental data. Near threshold, we observe self-organized dynamics in the form of population jumps that return the density to a critical value.
Quantum many-body systems driven far from equilibrium can exhibit phase transitions, chaos and entanglement, but probing these phenomena in large, nearly closed systems remains challenging. The Dicke model, which couples an ensemble of two-level systems collectively to a single bosonic mode, provides a fundamental framework for exploring these phenomena in light-matter interactions. Here we show that a two-dimensional crystal of approximately 100 trapped ions realizes this model and accesses integrable dynamical phase transitions, signatures of chaotic dynamics and fluctuation-driven spin-phonon excitation growth. Adiabatic elimination of the vibrational mode reveals ferromagnetic and paramagnetic dynamical spin phases, whereas strong spin-phonon coupling produces irregular trajectories and local relaxation consistent with quantum thermalization. Following a quench from an unstable fixed point, correlated excitation growth precedes generalized vacuum Rabi collapses and revivals; calibrated calculations identify two-mode squeezing 2.6 dB below the standard quantum limit, supported by reconstruction from spin measurements. By connecting collective dynamical instabilities to experimentally accessible signatures of quantum correlations, these results establish large ion crystals as a scalable platform for investigating non-equilibrium light-matter dynamics and generating resources for quantum-enhanced sensing.