Science Daily February 15, 2024
Arrays of Rydberg atoms are suitable to study quantum phase transitions in one dimension. Theoretically predicted chiral transition out of period-four phase is still pending experimental verification mainly due to extremely short interval over which this transition is realized in a single-component Rydberg array. Researchers in the Netherlands showed that multicomponent Rydberg arrays with extra experimentally tunable parameters provided a mechanism to manipulate quantum critical properties without breaking translation symmetry explicitly. They considered an effective blockade model of two component Rydberg atoms. Weak and strong components obeyed nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor blockades correspondingly. When laser detuning was applied to both components simultaneously stabilized the period-4 phase partly bounded by the chiral transition. They showed that relative ratio of the Rabi frequencies of the two components tuned the properties of the conformal Ashkin-Teller point and allowed them to manipulate an extent of the chiral transition. They discussed the prospects of multicomponent Rydberg arrays in the context of critical fusion…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Nature of the quantum phase transition between the period-four and disordered phases. Credit: Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 076505,15 February 2024