Quantum-simulator hardware promises new insights into problems from particle and nuclear physics. A major challenge is to reproduce gauge invariance, as violations of this quintessential property of lattice gauge theories can have dramatic consequences, e.g., the generation of a photon mass in quantum electrodynamics. Here, we introduce an experimentally friendly method to protect gauge invariance in $\mathrm{U}(1)$ lattice gauge theories against coherent errors in a controllable way. Our method employs only single-body energy-penalty terms, thus enabling practical implementations. As we derive analytically, some sets of penalty coefficients render undesired gauge sectors inaccessible by unitary dynamics for exponentially long times, and, for few-body error terms, with resources independent of system size. These findings constitute an exponential improvement over previously known results from energy-gap protection or perturbative treatments. In our method, the gauge-invariant subspace is protected by an emergent global symmetry, meaning it can be immediately applied to other symmetries. In our numerical benchmarks for continuous-time and digital quantum simulations, gauge protection holds for all calculated evolution times (up to $t>10^{10}/J$ for continuous time, with $J$ the relevant energy scale). Crucially, our gauge-protection technique is simpler to realize than the associated ideal gauge theory, and can thus be readily implemented in current ultracold-atom analog simulators as well as digital noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) devices.
Protection of gauge invariance in experimental realizations of lattice gauge theories based on energy-penalty schemes has recently stimulated impressive efforts both theoretically and in setups of quantum synthetic matter. A major challenge is the reliability of such schemes in non-Abelian gauge theories where local conservation laws do not commute. Here, we show through exact diagonalization that non-Abelian gauge invariance can be reliably controlled using gauge-protection terms that energetically stabilize the target gauge sector in Hilbert space, suppressing gauge violations due to unitary…
Disorder-free localization in translation-invariant gauge theories presents a counterintuitive yet powerful framework of ergodicity breaking in quantum many-body physics. The fragility of this phenomenon in the presence of gauge-breaking errors has recently been addressed, but no scheme has been able to reliably stabilize disorder-free localization through all accessible evolution times while preserving the disorder-free property. Here, we introduce the concept of \textit{Stark gauge protection}, which entails a linear sum in gauge-symmetry local (pseudo)generators weighted by a Stark potentia…
Quantum simulation of fermionic non-Abelian lattice gauge theories in $(2+1)$D with built-in gauge protection
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC)（阿诺德·索末菲理论物理中心）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；JILA（JILA研究所）；University of Colorado, Boulder（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校）；Center for Theory of Quantum Matter（量子物质理论中心）；Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）
Efficient quantum simulation protocols for any quantum theories demand efficient protection protocols for its underlying symmetries. This task is nontrivial for gauge theories as it is involves local symmetry/invariance. For non-Abelian gauge theories, protecting all the symmetries generated by a set of mutually non-commuting generators, is particularly difficult. In this letter, a global symmetry-protection protocol is proposed. Using the novel loop-string-hadron formalism of non-Abelian lattice gauge theory, we numerically demonstrate that all of the local symmetries get protected even for l…
In the current drive to quantum-simulate evermore complex gauge-theory phenomena, it is necessary to devise schemes allowing for the control and suppression of unavoidable gauge-breaking errors on different experimental platforms. Although there have been several successful approaches to tackle coherent errors, comparatively little has been done in the way of decoherence. By numerically solving the corresponding Bloch--Redfield equations, we show that the recently developed method of \textit{linear gauge protection} suppresses the growth of gauge violations due to $1/f^β$ noise as $1/V^β$, whe…
Trapped neutral atoms offer a powerful route to robust simulation of complex quantum systems. We present here a stroboscopic scheme for realization of a Hamiltonian with $n$-body interactions on a set of neutral atoms trapped in an addressable optical lattice, using only 1- and 2-body physical operations together with a dissipative mechanism that allows thermalization to finite temperature or cooling to the ground state. We demonstrate this scheme with application to the toric code Hamiltonian, ground states of which can be used to robustly store quantum information when coupled to a low tempe…
With recent progress in quantum simulations of lattice-gauge theories, it is becoming a pressing question how to reliably protect the gauge symmetry that defines such models. In a recent work [J. C. Halimeh \textit{et al.}, arXiv:2108.02203], an experimentally feasible gauge-protection scheme has been proposed that is based on the concept of a \textit{local pseudogenerator}, which is required to act identically to the full gauge-symmetry generator in the target gauge sector, but not necessarily outside of it. The scheme has been analytically and numerically shown to reliably stabilize lattice …
We show how lattice gauge theories can display many-body localization dynamics in the absence of disorder. Our starting point is the observation that, for some generic translationally invariant states, Gauss law effectively induces a dynamics which can be described as a disorder average over gauge super-selection sectors. We carry out extensive exact simulations on the real-time dynamics of a lattice Schwinger model, describing the coupling between U(1) gauge fields and staggered fermions. Our results show how memory effects and slow entanglement growth are present in a broad regime of paramet…
Cavity-mediated coherence protection and one-axis twisting for spins in solids
California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Chimie ParisTech, PSL University, CNRS, Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris（巴黎化学学院，巴黎文理研究大学，法国国家科学研究中心，巴黎化学研究院）
The postulate of gauge invariance in nature does not lend itself directly to implementations of lattice gauge theories in modern setups of quantum synthetic matter. Unavoidable gauge-breaking errors in such devices require gauge invariance to be enforced for faithful quantum simulation of gauge-theory physics. This poses major experimental challenges, in large part due to the complexity of the gauge-symmetry generators. Here, we show that gauge invariance can be reliably stabilized by employing simplified \textit{local pseudogenerators} designed such that within the physical sector they act id…
Under the Born--Markov approximation, a qubit system, such as a two-level atom, is known to undergo a memoryless decay of quantum coherence or excitation when weakly coupled to a featureless environment. Recently, it has been shown that unavoidable disorder in the environment is responsible for non-Markovian effects and information backflow from the environment into the system owing to Anderson localization. This~turns disorder into a resource for enhancing non-Markovianity in the system--environment dynamics, which could be of relevance in cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we consider the …
Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学和量子信息研究所）；Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学物理系）；Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech（基利马扎罗量子技术）
We consider a quantum device $D$ interacting with a quantum many-body environment $R$ which features a second-order phase transition at $T=0$. Exploiting the description of the critical slowing down undergone by $R$ according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, we explore the possibility to freeze the environment in a configuration such that its impact on the device is significantly reduced. Within this framework, we focus upon the magnetic-domain formation typical of the critical behaviour in spin models, and propose a strategy that allows one to protect the entanglement between different componen…
Quantum Many-Body Scarring in $2+1$D Gauge Theories with Dynamical Matter
The University of Queensland（昆士兰大学）；National Tsing Hua University（国立清华大学）；Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学）
Lattice Gauge Theories form a very successful framework for studying nonperturbative gauge field physics, in particular in Quantum Chromodynamics. Recently, their quantum simulation on atomic and solid-state platforms has been discussed, aiming at overcoming some of the difficulties still faced by the conventional approaches (such as the sign problem and real time evolution). While the actual implementations of a lattice gauge theory on a quantum simulator may differ in terms of the simulating system and its properties, they are all directed at studying similar physical phenomena, requiring th…
A simple argument is presented which, based on the minimal coupling Lagrangian for a many-body system, keeps the gauge invariance of the many-body Schrödinger equation with explicit Coulomb potential. The elimination of longitudinal electric field does not necessarily lead to the breakdown of gauge invariance. The total time derivative term in the matter-EM field interaction in the Lagrangian is canceled out by the choice of Coulomb gauge. The remaining interaction is described by transverse vector potential and the longitudinal electric field which is the homogeneous solution of Gauss law. Th…
We study the quantization of many-body systems in three dimensions in rotating coordinate frames using a gauge invariant formulation of the dynamics. We consider reference frames defined by linear gauge conditions, and discuss their Gribov ambiguities and commutator algebra. We construct the momentum operators, inner-product and Hamiltonian in those gauges, for systems with and without translation invariance. The analogy with the quantization of non-Abelian Yang-Mills theories in non-covariant gauges is emphasized. Our results are applied to quasi-rigid systems in the Eckart frame.
Quantum States Protection under Environmental Noise
Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Wuhan College（武汉学院交叉人工智能研究院）；Wilczek Quantum Center, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院费曼量子中心）
Quantum dynamics simulations can be improved using novel quasiprobability distributions based on non-orthogonal hermitian kernel operators. This introduces arbitrary functions (gauges) into the stochastic equations, which can be used to tailor them for improved calculations. A possible application to full quantum dynamic simulations of BEC's is presented.
We study the quantization of many-body systems in two dimensions in rotating coordinate frames using a gauge invariant formulation of the dynamics. We consider reference frames defined by linear and quadratic gauge conditions. In both cases we discuss their Gribov ambiguities and commutator algebra. We construct the momentum operators, inner-product and Hamiltonian in both types of gauges, for systems with and without translation invariance. The analogy with the quantization of QED in non-covariant gauges is emphasized. Our results are applied to quasi-rigid systems in the Eckart frame.
We study the properties of two quantum particles which are confined in a ring. The particles interact via a long-range gauge potential proportional to the distance between the particles. It is found that the two-body ground state corresponds to a state with non-zero angular momentum provided that the interaction between the particles is strong enough. In addition, the particles are correlated in the sense that depending on the interaction strength there is a propensity to be found close together or separated in the ring. We discuss the effect of measuring the position of one of the particles a…
Many-Body Non-Hermitian Skin Effect with Exact Steady States in the Dissipative Quantum Link Model
Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University（清华大学高等研究院）；Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems（马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所）；Department of Physics, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学物理系）
In this letter, we investigate the effects of non-Hermitian driving on quantum coherence in a bipartite system. The results that the dynamical localization destroyed by the Hermitian interaction revives are an evidence of the restoration of quantum coherence by non-Hermitian driving. Besides, the entanglement between the two subsystems also decays with the boosting of non-hermitian driving strength, which provides another evidence that non-Hermitian driving will protect quantum coherence. The physics behind this phenomenon is the domination of the quasieigenstate with maximum imaginary value o…
We present an operational procedure to transform global symmetries into local symmetries at the level of individual quantum states, as opposed to typical gauging prescriptions for Hamiltonians or Lagrangians. We then construct a compatible gauging map for operators, which preserves locality and reproduces the minimal coupling scheme for simple operators. By combining this construction with the formalism of projected entangled-pair states (PEPS), we can show that an injective PEPS for the matter fields is gauged into a G-injective PEPS for the combined gauge-matter system, which potentially has…
Point interactions for the second derivative operator in one dimension are studied. Every operator from this family is described by the boundary conditions which include a $ 2 \times 2 $ real matrix with the unit determinant and a phase. The role of the phase parameter leading to unitary equivalent operators is discussed in the present paper. In particular it is shown that the phase parameter is not redundant (contrary to previous studies) if non stationary problems are concerned. It is proven that the phase parameter can be interpreted as the amplitude of a singular gauge field. Considering t…
Exact Quantum Many-Body Scars in 2D Quantum Gauge Models
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo（东京大学宇宙物质前沿研究联合中心）；Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学理学研究科物理学专攻）；Institute for Physics of Intelligence, The University of Tokyo（东京大学智能物理研究所）；Trans-scale Quantum Science Institute, The University of Tokyo（东京大学跨尺度量子科学研究所）
Over the last years, Projected Entangled Pair States have demonstrated great power for the study of many body systems, as they naturally describe ground states of gapped many body Hamiltonians, and suggest a constructive way to encode and classify their symmetries. The PEPS study is not only limited to global symmetries, but has also been extended and applied for local symmetries, allowing to use them for the description of states in lattice gauge theories. In this paper we discuss PEPS with a local, SU(2) gauge symmetry, and demonstrate the use of PEPS features and techniques for the study of…
Quantum simulation is at the heart of the ongoing "second" quantum revolution, with various synthetic quantum matter platforms realizing evermore exotic condensed matter and particle physics phenomena at high levels of precision and control. The implementation of gauge theories on modern quantum simulators is especially appealing due to three main reasons: (i) it offers a new probe of high-energy physics on low-energy tabletop devices, (ii) it allows exploring condensed matter phenomena that are prominent in gauge theories even without a direct connection to high-energy physics, and (iii) it s…
We show how local constraints can globally "shatter" Hilbert space into subsectors, leading to an unexpected dynamics with features reminiscent of both many body localization and quantum scars. A crisp example of this phenomenon is provided by a "fractonic circuit" - a model of quantum circuit dynamics in one dimension constrained to conserve both charge and dipole moment. We show how the Hilbert space of the fractonic circuit dynamically fractures into disconnected emergent subsectors within a particular charge and dipole symmetry sector. A large number of the emergent subsectors, exponential…
Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) are one of the most fundamental subjects in many-body physics, and has recently attracted considerable research interests in quantum simulations. Here we experimentally investigate the emergent $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge invariance in a 1D superconducting circuit with 10 transmon qubits. By precisely adjusting staggered longitudinal and transverse fields to each qubit, we construct an effective Hamiltonian containing an LGT and gauge-broken terms. The corresponding matter sector can exhibit a localization, and there also exists a 3-qubit operator, of which the expectati…
An interplay of an exotic quantum holonomy and exceptional points is examined in one-dimensional Bose systems. The eigenenergy anholonomy, in which Hermitian adiabatic cycle induces nontrivial change in eigenenergies, can be interpreted as a manifestation of eigenenergy's Riemann surface structure, where the branch points are identified as the exceptional points which are degeneracy points in the complexified parameter space. It is also shown that the exceptional points are the divergent points of the non-Abelian gauge connection for the gauge theoretical formulation of the eigenspace anholono…
Although gauge invariance is a postulate in fundamental theories of nature such as quantum electrodynamics, in quantum-simulation implementations of gauge theories it is compromised by experimental imperfections. In a recent work [Halimeh and Hauke, \href{https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.030503}{Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{125}, 030503 (2020)}], it has been shown in finite-size spin-$1/2$ quantum link lattice gauge theories that upon introducing an energy-penalty term of sufficiently large strength $V$, unitary gauge-breaking errors at strength $λ$ are suppressed $\pr…
In the present work, we propose a scheme for digital formulation of lattice gauge theories with dynamical fermions in 3+1 dimensions. All interactions are obtained as a stroboscopic sequence of two-body interactions with an auxiliary system. This enables quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories where the magnetic four-body interactions arising in two and more spatial dimensions are obtained without the use of perturbation theory, thus resulting in stronger interactions compared with analogue approaches. The simulation scheme is applicable to lattice gauge theories with either compact or f…
Quantum many-body scars in random unitary circuits
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Laboratoire de Physique de l’École normale supérieure（巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室）；ENS（巴黎高等师范学院）；Université PSL（巴黎文理研究大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）
The combination of interactions and nonadiabaticity in many body systems is shown to induce magnetic gauge potentials in the equation of motion for the one-body reduced density matrix as well as the effective Schroedinger equation for the natural orbitals. The consequences of induced gauge geometry for charge and energy transfer are illustrated in the exact nonlinear dynamics of a three-site Hubbard ring ramped into a Floquet state by a time dependent circulating electric potential. Remarkably, the pumped charge flows against the driving in the strongly interacting regime, and the quasienergy …
We consider the spectrum of a $U(1)$ quantum link model where gauge fields are realized as $S=1/2$ spins and demonstrate a new mechanism for generating quantum many-body scars (high-energy eigenstates that violate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis) in a constrained Hilbert space. Many-body dynamics with local constraints has attracted much attention due to the recent discovery of non-ergodic behavior in quantum simulators based on Rydberg atoms. Lattice gauge theories provide natural examples of constrained systems since physical states must be gauge-invariant. In our case, the Hamilton…
Disorder-Free Localization and Fragmentation in a Non-Abelian Lattice Gauge Theory
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所（INFN）帕多瓦分部）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia ”G. Galilei”, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略物理与天文学系）；Padua Quantum Technologies Research Center, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学帕多瓦量子技术中心）；Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Department of Physics and Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC), Ludwig Ma（路德维希...大学物理系及阿诺德·索末菲理论物理中心）
Disorder-free localization is a paradigm of nonergodicity in translation-invariant quantum many-body systems hosting gauge symmetries. The quench dynamics starting from simple initial states, which correspond to extensive superpositions of gauge superselection sectors, exhibits many-body localization with the system dynamically inducing its own disorder. An open question concerns the stability of disorder-free localization in the presence of gauge-breaking errors, and whether processes due to the latter can be controllably suppressed. Here, we show that translation-invariant \textit{single-bod…
Scalable cold-atom quantum simulator of a $3+1$D U$(1)$ lattice gauge theory with dynamical matter
Università di Torino（都灵大学）；Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich（慕尼黑大学）；Kyung Hee University（庆熙大学）
We experimentally and theoretically investigate the scattering of a photonic quantum field from another stored in a strongly interacting atomic Rydberg ensemble. Considering the many-body limit of this problem, we derive an exact solution to the scattering-induced spatial decoherence of multiple stored photons, allowing for a rigorous understanding of the underlying dissipative quantum dynamics. Combined with our experiments, this analysis reveals a correlated coherence-protection process in which the scattering from one excitation can shield all others from spatial decoherence. We discuss how…
Z2 Lattice Gauge Theory on Non-trivial Topology and Its Quantum Simulation
Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Fudan University（复旦大学）；Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；International Quantum Academy, Shenzhen（深圳国际量子研究院）；Shanghai Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学院上海高等研究院）
