Quantum Catalysis of Magnetic Phase Transitions in a Quantum Simulator

P. Richerme, C. Senko, S. Korenblit, J. Smith, A. Lee, R. Islam, W. C. Campbell, and C. Monroe

Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 100506 – Published 5 September 2013

Abstract

We control quantum fluctuations to create the ground state magnetic phases of a classical Ising model with a tunable longitudinal magnetic field using a system of 6 to 10 atomic ion spins. Because of the long-range Ising interactions, the various ground state spin configurations are separated by multiple first-order phase transitions, which in our zero temperature system cannot be driven by thermal fluctuations. We instead use a transverse magnetic field as a quantum catalyst to observe the first steps of the complete fractal devil’s staircase, which emerges in the thermodynamic limit and can be mapped to a large number of many-body and energy-optimization problems.

Received 27 March 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.100506

Authors & Affiliations

P. Richerme¹, C. Senko¹, S. Korenblit¹, J. Smith¹, A. Lee¹, R. Islam², W. C. Campbell³, and C. Monroe¹

¹Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland Department of Physics and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
²Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

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Issue

Vol. 111, Iss. 10 — 6 September 2013

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