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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Floquet thermalisation in a Rydberg-blockaded atomic chain subject to a frequency-modulated drive

J Brion, E. Brion

Published Feb 20, 2020• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We report on numerical simulations demonstrating the emergence of stroboscopic thermalisation in a chain of atoms submitted to a laser field whose frequency is periodically modulated close to resonance with a transition towards a Rydberg state. We relate the conditions of equilibration of the Rydberg population to the spectrum of the Floquet Hamiltonian and suggest a possible experimental implementation.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ab7880

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Abstract We report on numerical simulations demonstrating the emergence of stroboscopic thermalisation in a chain of atoms submitted to a laser field whose frequency is periodically modulated close to resonance with a transition towards a Rydberg state. We relate the conditions of equilibration of the Rydberg population to the spectrum of the Floquet Hamiltonian and suggest a possible experimental implementation.
Periodically driven Floquet quantum systems hold great promise for engineering exotic quantum phases and matter, but are often limited by rapid thermalization. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a square-wave-modulated Floquet engineering protocol to steer and study the thermalization dynamics in one-dimensional Rydberg atom arrays. We identify a reciprocal Floquet thermalization mechanism, which is triggered when the combination of laser detuning and Rydberg atom interactions inversely matches the Floquet period. The level statistics show narrow peaks when the reciprocal condition is met, while thermalization is suppressed between two adjacent peaks. We extract signatures of thermalization and its suppression from the stroboscopic evolution of the atomic population. Critically, thermalization occurs in a disorder-free regime, with rapid equilibration achieved within the Rydberg lifetime and experimentally accessible initial states. Our study establishes a robust framework for exploring thermalization-to-localization transitions and designing effective Hamiltonians, and highlights the unique potential of the Rydberg atom array setting for quantum simulations.
We study the stroboscopic dynamics of a periodically driven finite Rydberg chain with staggered ($\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$) and time-dependent uniform $[\ensuremath{\lambda}(t)]$ detuning terms using exact diagonalization. We show that at intermediate drive frequencies (${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$), the presence of a finite $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ results in violation of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) via clustering of Floquet eigenstates. Such clustering is lost at special commensurate drive frequencies for which $\ensuremath{\hbar}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{d}=n\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ ($n\ensuremath{\in}Z$) leading to restoration of ergodicity. The violation of ETH in these driven finite-sized chains is also evident from the dynamical freezing displayed by the density-density correlation between Rydberg excitations at even sites of the chain for specific ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$. Such a correlator exhibits stable oscillations with perfect revivals when driven close to the freezing frequencies for initial all spin-down ($|0\ensuremath{\rangle}$) or Neel ($|{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, with up spins on even sites) states. In contrast, for the $|{\overline{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ (time-reversed partner of $|{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}\ensuremath{\rangle}$) initial state, we find complete absence of such oscillations leading to freezing for a range of ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$; this range increases with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$. We also study the properties of quantum many-body scars in the Floquet spectrum of the model as a function of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ and show the existence of mid-spectrum scars at large $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ which do not have overlap with either $|0\ensuremath{\rangle}$ or $|{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ states. We supplement our numerical results with those from an analytic Floquet Hamiltonian computed using Floquet perturbation theory which allows us to provide qualitative analytical explanations of the above-mentioned numerical results.
We study a chain of periodically driven Rydberg atoms and identify a class of drive protocols for which the system exhibits emergent prethermal Bethe integrability at special drive frequencies. We provide a perturbative analytic expression of its Floquet Hamiltonian in the large drive amplitude regime. We demonstrate integrability of the leading term of this Floquet Hamiltonian at special drive frequencies, which we identify, by mapping it to the Hamiltonian of the paradigmatic spin-1/21/21/2 XXZ{\rm XXZ}XXZ chain. We support our analytical results by exact diagonalization studies on finite chains. Our numerical results on level statistics, half-chain entanglement entropy, and longitudinal magnetization of the driven chain brings out its emergent integrable nature at the special drive frequencies which persists up to a large prethermal timescale.
We study a generic class of fermionic two-band models under synchronized periodic driving, i.e., with the different terms in a Hamiltonian subject to periodic drives with the same frequency and phase. With all modes initially in a maximally mixed state, the synchronized drive is found to produce nonperiodic patterns of dynamical quantum phase transitions, with their appearance determined by an interplay of the band structure and the frequency of the drive. A case study of the anisotropic XY chain in a transverse magnetic field, transcribed to an effective two-band model, shows that the modes come with quantized geometric phases, allowing for the construction of an effective dynamical order parameter. Numerical studies in the limit of a strong magnetic field reveal distinct signals of precursors of dynamical quantum phase transitions also when the initial state of the XY chain is perturbed slightly away from maximal mixing, suggesting that the transitions may be accessible experimentally. A blueprint for an experiment built around laser-trapped circular Rydberg atoms is proposed.
Neutral atom arrays driven into Rydberg states constitute a promising approach for realizing programmable quantum systems. Enabled by strong interactions associated with Rydberg blockade, they allow for simulation of complex spin models and quantum dynamics. We introduce a new Floquet engineering technique for systems in the blockade regime that provides control over novel forms of interactions and entanglement dynamics in such systems. Our approach is based on time-dependent control of Rydberg laser detuning and leverages perturbations around periodic many-body trajectories as resources for operator spreading. These time-evolved operators are utilized as a basis for engineering interactions in the effective Hamiltonian describing the stroboscopic evolution. As an example, we show how our method can be used to engineer strong spin exchange, consistent with the blockade, in a one-dimensional chain, enabling the exploration of gapless Luttinger liquid phases. In addition, we demonstrate that combining gapless excitations with Rydberg blockade can lead to dynamic generation of large-scale multipartite entanglement. Experimental feasibility and possible generalizations are discussed.
We study the collective dynamics of a clean Floquet system of cold atoms, numerically simulating two realistic setups based on a regular chain of interacting Rydberg atoms driven by laser fields. In both cases, the population evolution and its Fourier spectrum display clear signatures of a discrete time crystal (DTC), exhibiting the appearance of a robust subharmonic oscillation which persists on a timescale increasing with the chain size, within a certain range of control parameters. We also characterize how the DTC stability is affected by dissipative processes, typically present in this atomic system even though the Rydberg state is very long lived.