Continuous Quantum Symmetry-Breaking

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Measured correlation between N trapped ion spins after subjecting them to a manybody Ising Hamiltonian. Below shows correlation over distance and vs. N for disordered and symmetry-broken phases.

1D systems exhibiting a continuous symmetry can host exotic quantum phases of matter with true long-range order, but they require long-range interactions. We individually control all the spins in a chain of trapped ions, and their inherent long-range interactions allow the study of such CSB phases with up to 23 spin/qubits.

  • “Continuous Symmetry Breaking in a Trapped-Ion Spin Chain,” L. Feng, O. Katz, C. Haack, M. Maghrebi, A. V. Gorshkov, Z. Gong, M. Cetina, and C. Monroe, arXiv:2211.01275 (2022).
  • See related work with neutral atom arrays: C. Chen, … N. Y. Yao, A. Broeways, “Continuous Symmetry Breaking in a Two-dimensional Rydberg Array,” arXiv:2207.12930 (2022).