Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) describe when a many-body quantum system displays non-analytic behavior associated with a discontinuous change in a property of the ground state as a parameter is varied. The QPT in prototypical Dicke model is difficult to reach experimentally as the spin–field coupling strength must be quite large. In this work we describe a new model—the off-resonant Tavis–Cummings model where we drive the common mode, and discover a new type of QPT at quite low coupling strengths which are comparable with the geometric mean of the atomic and field detunings . Through analytic methods we demonstrate this QPT for both finite and infinite numbers of spins and show that |〈 J x ( J z )〉|/( N /2) ∼ | λ / λ c − 1| γ x ( γ z ) and 〈 a † a 〉/ N ∼ | λ / λ c − 1| γ a for λ ⩾ λ c , with critical exponents γ x ≈ 1/2, γ z ≈ 1 and γ a ≈ 1. We show that this QPT can be immediately observed by laboratory cavity-QED setups such as Bose–Einstein condensate in optical cavity and superconducting circuit-QED as well as a line of trapped ultracold ions.
Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) describe when a many-body quantum system displays non-analytic behavior associated with a discontinuous change in a property of the ground state as a parameter is varied. The QPT in prototypical Dicke model is difficult to reach experimentally as the spin–field coupling strength must be quite large. In this work we describe a new model—the off-resonant Tavis–Cummings model where we drive the common mode, and discover a new type of QPT at quite low coupling strengths which are comparable with the geometric mean of the atomic and field detunings . Through analytic methods we demonstrate this QPT for both finite and infinite numbers of spins and show that |〈 J x ( J z )〉|/( N /2) ∼ | λ / λ c − 1| γ x ( γ z ) and 〈 a † a 〉/ N ∼ | λ / λ c − 1| γ a for λ ⩾ λ c , with critical exponents γ x ≈ 1/2, γ z ≈ 1 and γ a ≈ 1. We show that this QPT can be immediately observed by laboratory cavity-QED setups such as Bose–Einstein condensate in optical cavity and superconducting circuit-QED as well as a line of trapped ultracold ions.
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.
Abstract Quantum phase transition (QPT) in the Dicke model has long attracted considerable interest due to its fundamental importance in quantum optics and many-body physics. Recent studies indicate that QPT-like behavior may also arise in the driven Tavis-Cummings (TC) model—a simplified variant of the Dicke model that neglects counter-rotating-wave coupling terms. Hybrid quantum systems, capitalizing on the advantages of different components, offer a promising platform to realize such many-body systems. Here, we experimentally observe a dissipative phase transition in the thermodynamic limit using a driven TC model, implemented by coupling an electron spin ensemble to a superconducting microwave resonator. This QPT behavior is detected via the measurements of Rabi splitting, which exhibits a unique dependence on the collective spin excitations of the system. Our findings provide a route to experimentally investigate critical phenomena in realistic many-body systems under decoherence, and promise potential applications in quantum simulation and other emerging quantum technologies.
Quantum phase transition in Ξ-configuration Tavis-Cummings model driven by an electromagnetic field for a finite number of atoms
The quantum phase transitions of a three-level Tavis-Cummings model in the \Xi Ξ -configuration driven by a single-mode electromagnetic field in a QED cavity are studied for n_a=1,\,2 n a = 1 , 2 , and 4 4 atoms. Although conventional observables like photon number and energy level populations suffice to locate quantum phase transitions, they often lack sensitivity to finite-size effects. Here, we show that the expectation values of the quadratic Casimir invariants associated with the atomic subsystems offer a more robust measure, exhibiting sharp signatures of criticality that are validated by fidelity calculations. Additionally, the von Neumann entropy is employed to map the entanglement landscape between matter and the quantized field. A key finding is that the external driving field acts as a control parameter that shrinks the normal phase region; as the driving intensity increases, the separable ground state vanishes, leading to the dominance of field-matter entanglement across the parameter space.
Phase transitions are commonly held to occur only in the thermodynamical limit of a large number of system components. Here, we exemplify at the hand of the exactly solvable Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model and its generalization to finite JC lattices that finite component systems of coupled spins and bosons may exhibit quantum phase transitions (QPTs). For the JC model we find a continuous symmetry-breaking QPT, a photonic condensate with a macroscopic occupation as the ground state, and a Goldstone mode as a low-energy excitation. For the two site JC lattice we show analytically that it undergoes a Mott-insulator to superfluid QPT. We identify as the underlying principle of the emergence of finite system QPTs the combination of increasing atomic energy and increasing interaction strength between the atom and the bosonic mode, which allows for the exploration of an increasingly large portion of the infinite dimensional Hilbert space of the bosonic mode. This suggests that finite system phase transitions will be present in a broad range of physical systems.
In the strong coupling regime of cavity QED where the characteristic damping rates are orders of magnitude below the coherent coupling, resolved multi-photon resonances can be observed for strong enough driving strength. In a certain frequency range, the external coherent drive field hits multi-photon resonances which correspond to very high order transitions that cannot be excited at the given power of the driving field. We found that in this range the cavity field evolves into a robust semiclassical solution which is the mixture of the vacuum and an excited quasi-classical state. The system is reminiscent of optical bistability, however, here a single atom produces a telegraph signal for the outgoing intensity by switching between two states with large photon number difference. We calculate this behavior also for the Tavis-Cummings model representing three qubits in an existing circuit QED experimental setting.
The quantum phase transition of the Dicke model has been observed recently in a system formed by motional excitations of a laser-driven Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to an optical cavity [Baumann et al., Nature (London) 464, 1301 (2010)]. The cavity-based system is intrinsically open: photons leak out of the cavity where they are detected. Even at zero temperature, the continuous weak measurement of the photon number leads to an irreversible dynamics toward a steady state. In the framework of a generalized Bogoliubov theory, we show that the steady state exhibits a dynamical quantum phase transition. We find that the critical point and the mean field are only slightly modified with respect to the phase transition in the ground state. However, the critical exponents of the singular quantum correlations are significantly different in the two cases. There is also a drastic modification of the atom-field entanglement, since the divergence of the logarithmic negativity of the ground state at the critical point is suppressed and a finite entanglement is found in the steady state.