Emergent effective spin models in ion-trap-based quantum simulators

E.E. Edwards, Rajibul Islam, S. É. Korenblit +9 more

Ziliang Carter Lin, R.M. Clark, Yufei Ge +1 more

Marissa D’Onofrio, Yuanheng Xie, A. J. Rasmusson +4 more

Guido Pagano, Adamczyk, Wojciech, Visal So

Trapped atomic ions are among the most advanced platforms for quantum simulation, computation, and metrology, offering long coherence times and precise, individual control over both internal and motional degrees of freedom. In this review, we present a pedagogical introduction to trapped-ion systems, covering the physics of ion trapping, qubit encodings, and laser-ion interactions. We explain how spin-dependent forces generated by light fields enable both analog and digital quantum simulations of spin and spin-boson models, as well as high-fidelity quantum logic gates. We then highlight an emerging frontier in the simulation of chemical dynamics, summarizing recent experiments that demonstrate the capability of trapped ions to simulate vibronic models and excitation-transfer processes. Finally, we outline future directions in quantum simulation and discuss open challenges in scaling up trapped-ion architectures.

S.K. Haendel, Danilo Dadic, Michael S. Ip +1 more

Rejish Nath, Marcello Dalmonte, Alexander W. Glaetzle +3 more

We propose a trapped ion scheme en route to realize spin Hamiltonians on a Kagome lattice which, at low energies, are described by emergent gauge fields, and support a topological quantum spin liquid ground state. The enabling element in our scheme is the hexagonal plaquette spin–spin interactions in a two-dimensional ion crystal. For this, the phonon-mode spectrum of the crystal is engineered by standing-wave optical potentials or by using Rydberg excited ions, thus generating localized phonon-modes around a hexagon of ions selected out of the entire two-dimensional crystal. These tailored modes can mediate spin–spin interactions between ion-qubits on a hexagonal plaquette when subject to state-dependent optical dipole forces. We discuss how these interactions can be employed to emulate a generalized Balents–Fisher–Girvin model in minimal instances of one and two plaquettes. This model is an archetypical Hamiltonian in which gauge fields are the emergent degrees of freedom on top of the classical ground state manifold. Under realistic situations, we show the emergence of a discrete Gauss's law as well as the dynamics of a deconfined charge excitation on a gauge-invariant background using the two-plaquettes trapped ions spin-system. The proposed scheme in principle allows further scaling in a future trapped ion quantum simulator, and we conclude that our work will pave the way towards the simulation of emergent gauge theories and quantum spin liquids in trapped ion systems.