Speaker
Description
Locally constrained gauge theories underpin our understanding of fundamental interactions in particle physics and the behaviour of quantum materials. In strongly correlated systems, they can give rise to quantum spin liquids that lack conventional order and are defined by coherent superposition of many-body configurations. Realising and probing such exotic states experimentally remains challenging due to the difficulty of engineering local constraints and detecting coherences between many-body states. In this talk, I will present a large-scale realisation of a two-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory with ultracold atoms in an optical superlattice with over 1000 sites. We explore non-equilibrium dynamics and investigate non-adiabatic protocols for the preparation of Rokhsar–Kivelson quantum spin liquid lakes within the constrained Hilbert space. Our results establish non-equilibrium quantum simulation protocols as a powerful route for accessing exotic, highly-entangled states beyond those hosted by the engineered Hamiltonian in thermal equilibrium.
| Project | E2 - Non-ergodic dynamics in tunable Bose-Hubbard models |
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