Synthetic gauge fields in Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard ring lattices

A Nunnenkamp, Jens Koch, S. M. Girvin

Many-body physics is traditionally concerned with systems of interacting massive particles. Recent studies of effective interactions between photons, induced in the circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) architecture by coupling the microwave field to superconducting qubits, have paved the way for photon-based many-body physics. We derive the magnitude and intrinsic signs of photon hopping amplitudes in such circuit QED arrays. For a finite, ring-shaped Jaynes–Cummings lattice exposed to a synthetic gauge field, we show that degeneracies in the single-excitation spectrum emerge, which can give rise to strong correlations for the interacting system with multiple excitations. We calculate the homodyne transmission for such a device, explain the generalization of vacuum Rabi splittings known for the single-site Jaynes–Cummings model and identify fingerprints of interactions beyond the linear response regime.

Monika Aidelsburger

Andrew L. C. Hayward, A. Martin

We investigate the ground-state behavior of Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard lattices in the presence of a synthetic magnetic field, via a Gutzwiller ansatz. Specifically, we study the superfluid-Mott transition and the formation of vortex lattices in the superfluid regime. We find a suppression of the superfluid fraction due to the frustration induced by the incommensurate magnetic and spacial lattice lengths. We also predict the formation of triangular vortex lattices inside the superfluid regime.

Shijie Hu, Xuefeng Zhang, Francisco dos Santos +2 more

Lin Su, Anne Hébert, Aaron Krahn +2 more

Lin-Lin Jiang, Ya-Ping Ni, Xuan Xie +2 more

We investigate the emergence of frustrated quantum phases in a Jaynes-Cummings (JC) trimer with complex hopping amplitudes between the cavities, which represents the smallest frustrated unit in light-matter systems. The complex hopping amplitudes that can be engineered via synthetic gauge fields introduce chiral effects and geometric frustration to the system. We obtain analytic solutions in the semiclassical limit and map out the phase diagram of this model, featuring one normal and three distinct superradiant phases. Among these phases, a chirally frustrated superradiant phase emerges, characterized by broken chiral and translational symmetries and unidirectional photon flow. These results reveal how frustration and symmetry breaking can arise in JC systems with synthetic gauge fields and strong light-matter coupling.