The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is the paradigm to account for the nonadiabatic dynamics of a system across a continuous phase transition. Its study in the quantum regime is hindered by the requisite of ground state cooling. We report the experimental quantum simulation of critical dynamics in the transverse-field Ising model by a set of Landau-Zener crossings in pseudo-momentum space, that can be probed with high accuracy using a single trapped ion. We test the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum regime in the momentum space and find the measured scaling of excitations is in accordance with the theoretical prediction.

Quantum systems can be exploited for disruptive technologies but in practice quantum features are fragile due to noisy environments. Quantum coherence, a fundamental such feature, is a basis-dependent property that is known to exhibit a resilience to certain types of Markovian noise. Yet, it is still unclear whether this resilience can be relevant in practical tasks. Here, we experimentally investigate the resilient effect of quantum coherence in a photonic Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state under Markovian bit-flip noise, and explore its applications in a noisy metrology scenario. In particular, using up to six-qubit probes, we demonstrate that the standard quantum limit can be outperformed under a transversal noise strength of approximately equal magnitude to the signal. Our results provide experimental evidence that a quantum advantage in metrological scaling can be maintained even in the presence of uncorrelated Markovian noise. This work highlights the important role of passive control in noisy quantum hardware, which can act as a low-overhead complement to more traditional approaches such as quantum error correction, thus impacting on the deployment of quantum technologies in real-world settings.

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We demonstrate a fiber Fabry–Pérot cavity in the ultraviolet range, which covers the florescence wavelength for the 2P1/2 to 2S1/2 transition of Yb+ and is designed in the bad cavity limit for florescence collection. Benefiting from both the small cavity mode volume and the large atom dipole, a cavity with moderate finesse and high transmission still supports a good cooperativity, which is made and tested in experiment. Based on the measured experimental parameters, simulation performed on the cavity and ion shows a Purcell factor better than 2.5 and a single-mode fiber collection efficiency over 10%. This technology can support ultra-bright single photon sources based on trapped ions and can provide the possibility to link remote atoms as a quantum network.