Quantum Simulations with Photons and Polaritons

Na Young Kim, Y. Yamamoto

U-Shin Kim, Yoon-Ho Kim

We propose a tunable quantum simulation of the Lieb-Liniger model using 1D self-interacting stationary light polaritons, revealing controllable interaction regimes and photon correlations for exploring many-body dynamics and advancing quantum information processing.

Lorenzo M. Procopio, Philip John Walther

Daniel Maxwell, D. J. Szwer, David Paredes-Barato +6 more

We use a microwave field to control the quantum state of optical photons stored in a cold atomic cloud. The photons are stored in highly excited collective states (Rydberg polaritons) enabling both fast qubit rotations and control of photon-photon interactions. Through the collective read-out of these pseudospin rotations it is shown that the microwave field modifies the long-range interactions between polaritons. This technique provides a powerful interface between the microwave and optical domains, with applications in quantum simulations of spin liquids, quantum metrology and quantum networks.

S. Portolan, Salvatore Savasta

Hudson Pimenta Silveira

In recent years, the development of various platforms for quantum simulation made it possible to study many-body systems under controlled conditions. Of particular interest are one-dimensional systems, known to exhibit some unique properties compared to their higher-dimensional counterparts. One of the current promising platforms for simulations of one-dimensional systems are Rydberg dark polaritons, quasiparticles of a photon-matter hybrid character emerging in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) coupled with Rydberg atoms. These polaritons are long-lived (owing to the properties of EIT) and inherit interaction properties from the huge polarizability of Rydberg atoms, both attractive features in the context of simulations. We herein construct an experimental proposal for realizing one-dimensional physics through Rydberg dark polaritons. By using a stationary-light scheme, a sequence of steps allows a laser pulse incident on a transversally trapped gas of Rydberg atoms to yield a stationary pulse of weakly interacting polaritons. Within the stationarity regime, the lasers are further tuned to adjust the interaction effective one-dimensional scattering length through a Feshbach-like resonance to create a Tonks-Girardeau-type gas of polaritons. Signatures of non-trivial correlations can then experimentally probed by retrieving the photons through a subsequent adjustment of the laser strengths. Realizing this proposal would be a landmark achievement in the fields of many-body simulations and Rydberg physics.