Multimode Cavity QED Ising Spin Glass
Brendan Marsh, David Atri-Schuller, Yunpeng Ji +5 more
We realize a driven-dissipative Ising spin glass using cavity QED in a novel "4/7" multimode geometry. Gases of ultracold atoms trapped within the cavity by optical tweezers serve as effective spins. They are coupled via randomly signed, all-to-all Ising cavity-mediated interactions. Networks of up to n=25 spins are holographically imaged via cavity emission. The system is driven through a frustrated transverse-field Ising transition, and we show that the entropy of the spin glass states depends on the rate at which the transition is crossed. Despite being intrinsically nonequilibrium, the system exhibits phenomena associated with Parisi's theory of equilibrium spin glasses, namely, replica symmetry breaking (RSB) and ultrametric structure. For system sizes up to n=16, we measure the Parisi function q(x), Edwards-Anderson overlap q_{EA}, and ultrametricity K correlator; all indicate a deeply ordered spin glass under RSB. The system can serve as an associative memory and enable aging and rejuvenation studies in driven-dissipative spin glasses at the microscopic level.
arXiv:2505.22658•Physical Review Letters•Sep 24, 2025•4 citations