The manipulation of neutral atoms by light is at the heart of countless scientific discoveries in the field of quantum physics in the last three decades. The level of control that has been achieved at the single particle level within arrays of optical traps, while preserving the fundamental properties of quantum matter (coherence, entanglement, superposition), makes these technologies prime candidates to implement disruptive computation paradigms. In this paper, we review the main characteristics of these devices from atoms / qubits to application interfaces, and propose a classification of a wide variety of tasks that can already be addressed in a computationally efficient manner in the Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum\cite{Preskill_NISQ} era we are in. We illustrate how applications ranging from optimization challenges to simulation of quantum systems can be explored either at the digital level (programming gate-based circuits) or at the analog level (programming Hamiltonian sequences). We give evidence of the intrinsic scalability of neutral atom quantum processors in the 100-1,000 qubits range and introduce prospects for universal fault tolerant quantum computing and applications beyond quantum computing.

The properties of coupled emitters can differ dramatically from those of their individual constituents. Canonical examples include sub-and super-radiance, wherein the decay rate of a collective excitation is reduced or enhanced due to correlated interactions with the environment. Here, we systematically study the properties of collective excitations for regularly spaced arrays of quantum emitters coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide. We find that, for low excitation numbers, the modal properties are well-characterized by spin waves with a definite wavevector. Moreover, the decay rate of the most subradiant modes obeys a universal scaling with a cubic suppression in the number of emitters. Multiexcitation subradiant eigenstates can be built from fermionic combinations of single excitation eigenstates; such 'fermionization' results in multiple excitations that spatially repel one another. We put forward a method to efficiently create and measure such subradiant states, which can be realized with superconducting qubits. These measurement protocols probe both real-space correlations (using on-site dispersive readout) and temporal correlations in the emitted field (using photon correlation techniques).

The Rabi model considers a two-level system (or spin-1/2) coupled to a quantized harmonic oscillator and describes the simplest interaction between matter and light. The recent experimental progress in solid-state circuit quantum electrodynamics has engendered theoretical efforts to quantitatively describe the mathematical and physical aspects of the light-matter interaction beyond the rotating wave approximation. We develop a stochastic Schrödinger equation approach which enables us to access the strong-coupling limit of the Rabi model and study the effects of dissipation, and AC drive in an exact manner. We include the effect of ohmic noise on the non-Markovian spin dynamics resulting in Kondo-type correlations, as well as cavity losses. We compute the time evolution of spin variables in various conditions. As a consideration for future work, we discuss the possibility to reach a steady state with one polariton in realistic experimental conditions.

There have been concerted efforts in recent years to realize the next generation of clocks using alkaline earth atoms in an optical lattice. Assuming that the atoms are independent, such a clock would benefit from a √ N enhancement in its stability, associated with the improved signal-tonoise ratio of a large atom number N . An interesting question, however, is what type of atomic interactions might affect the clock dynamics, and whether these interactions are deleterious or could even be beneficial. In this work, we investigate the effect of dipole-dipole interactions, in which atoms excited during the clock protocol emit and re-absorb photons. Taking a simple system consisting of a 1D atomic array, we find that dipole-dipole interactions in fact result in an open quantum system exhibiting critical dynamics, as a set of collective excitations acquires a decay rate approaching zero in the thermodynamic limit due to subradiance. A first consequence is that the decay of atomic excited population at long times exhibits a slow power-law behavior, instead of the exponential expected for non-interacting atoms. We also find that excitations among the atoms exhibit fermionic spatial correlations at long times, due to the microscopic properties of the multi-excitation subradiant states. Interestingly, these properties cannot be captured by mean-field dynamics, suggesting the strongly interacting nature of this system. We finally characterize the time-dependent frequency shift in the atomic frequency measurement, and find that it is dominated by the interaction energy of subradiant states at long times. Furthermore, we show that the decay of the clock signal displays at long times a non-exponential behavior, which might be useful to improve the uncertainty limit with which the atomic frequency can be resolved. We attribute the lack of robust power-law dynamics for the clock signal to an effective many-body dephasing caused by purely coherent interactions.

We review recent developments regarding non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and many-body physics with light, in superconducting circuits and Josephson analogues. We start with quantum impurity models addressing dissipative and driven systems. Both theorists and experimentalists are making efforts towards the characterization of these non-equilibrium quantum systems. We show how Josephson junction systems can implement the equivalent of the Kondo effect with microwave photons. The Kondo effect can be characterized by a renormalized light-frequency and a peak in the Rayleigh elastic transmission of a photon. We also address the physics of hybrid systems comprising mesoscopic quantum dot devices coupled to an electromagnetic resonator. Then, we discuss extensions to Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) Networks allowing to engineer the Jaynes-Cummings lattice and Rabi lattice models through the presence of superconducting qubits in the cavities. This opens the door to novel many-body physics with light out of equilibrium, in relation with the Mott-superfluid transition observed with ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices. Then, we summarize recent theoretical predictions for realizing topological phases with light. Synthetic gauge fields and spin-orbit couplings have been successfully implemented with ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices -using time-dependent Floquet perturbations periodic in time, for exampleas well as in photonic lattice systems. Finally, we discuss the Josephson effect related to Bose-Hubbard models in ladder and two-dimensional geometries. The Bose-Hubbard model is related to the Jaynes-Cummings lattice model in the large detuning limit between light and matter (the superconducting qubits). In the presence of synthetic gauge fields, we show that Meissner currents subsist in an insulating Mott phase. arXiv:1505.00167v2 [cond-mat.mes-hall] 15 Jan 2016 be either Rydberg atoms (cold atoms) or trapped ions [3, 4] for example. A step towards the realization of manybody physics has also been made through the realization of model Hamiltonians such as the Dicke Hamiltonian [5], where the associated super-radiant quantum phase transition has been observed in non-equilibrium conditions [6]. A solid-state version of cavity quantum electrodynamics, related to circuit quantum electrodynamics, built with superconducting quantum circuits [7,8], is also a very active field both from experimental and theoretical points of view. Theorists have predicted novel emergent quantum phenomena either in relation with strong light-matter coupling [9] or non-equilibrium quantum physics [10,11].The goal here is to review developments, both theoretical and experimental, towards realizing many-body physics and quantum simulation in circuit QED starting from small networks to larger ensembles of superconducting elements in the microwave limit. An experimental endeavor has been accomplished towards the realization of larger arrays in circuit QED [12,13,14,15] and towards controlling trajectories in small systems [16,17]. This research is c...

We analyze the topological deformations of the ground state manifold of a quantum spin-1/2 in a magnetic field H = H(sin theta cos phi, sin theta sin phi cos theta) induced by a coupling to an ohmic quantum dissipative environment at zero temperature. From Bethe ansatz results and a variational approach, we confirm that the Chern number associated with the geometry of the reduced spin ground state manifold is preserved in the delocalized phase for alpha < 1. We report a divergence of the Berry curvature at alpha(c) = 1 for magnetic fields aligned along the equator theta = pi/2. This divergence is caused by the complete quenching of the transverse magnetic field by the bath associated with a gap closing that occurs at the localization Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum phase transition in this model. Recent experiments in quantum circuits have engineered nonequilibrium protocols to access topological properties from a measurement of a dynamical Chern number defined via the out-of-equilibrium spin expectation values. Applying a numerically exact stochastic Schrodinger approach we find that, for a fixed field sweep velocity theta(t) = vt, the bath induces a crossover from ( quasi) adiabatic to nonadiabatic dynamical behavior when the spin bath coupling a increases. We also investigate the particular regime H/omega(c) << v/H << 1 with large bath cutoff frequency.c, where the dynamical Chern number vanishes already at alpha = 1/2. In this regime, the mapping to an interacting resonance level model enables us to analytically describe the behavior of the dynamical Chern number in the vicinity of alpha = 1/2. We further provide an intuitive physical explanation of the bath-induced breakdown of adiabaticity in analogy to the Faraday effect in electromagnetism. We demonstrate that the driving of the spin leads to the production of a large number of bosonic excitations in the bath, which strongly affect the spin dynamics. Finally, we quantify the spin-bath entanglement and formulate an analogy with an effective model at thermal equilibrium. Disciplines Condensed Matter Physics | Physics CommentsThis article is published as Henriet, Loïc, Antonio Sclocchi, Peter P. Orth, and Karyn Le Hur. "Topology of a dissipative spin: Dynamical Chern number, bath-induced nonadiabaticity, and a quantum dynamo effect." Physical Review B 95, no. 5 (2017) We analyze the topological deformations of the ground state manifold of a quantum spin-1/2 in a magnetic field H = H (sin θ cos φ, sin θ sin φ, cos θ ) induced by a coupling to an ohmic quantum dissipative environment at zero temperature. From Bethe ansatz results and a variational approach, we confirm that the Chern number associated with the geometry of the reduced spin ground state manifold is preserved in the delocalized phase for α < 1. We report a divergence of the Berry curvature at α c = 1 for magnetic fields aligned along the equator θ = π/2. This divergence is caused by the complete quenching of the transverse magnetic field by the bath associated with a gap closing that occurs a...

No abstract

We address dissipation effects on the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics of an ensemble of spins-1/2 coupled via an Ising interaction. Dissipation is modeled by a (ohmic) bath of harmonic oscillators at zero temperature and correspond either to the sound modes of a one-dimensional Bose-Einstein (quasi-)condensate or to the zero-point fluctuations of a long transmission line. We consider the dimer comprising two spins and the quantum Ising chain with long-range interactions, and develop a (mathematically and numerically) exact stochastic approach to address non-equilibrium protocols in the presence of an environment. For the two spin case, we first investigate the dissipative quantum phase transition induced by the environment through quantum quenches, and study the effect of the environment on the synchronization properties. Then, we address Landau-Zener-StueckelbergMajorana protocols for two spins, and for the spin array. In this latter case, we adopt a stochastic mean-field point of view and present a Kibble-Zurek type argument to account for interaction effects in the lattice. Such dissipative quantum spin arrays can be realized in ultra-cold atoms, trapped ions, mesoscopic systems, and are related to Kondo lattice models.