Observation of string breaking on a (2+1)D Rydberg quantum simulator

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gonzalez-Cuadra, Daniel; Hamdan, Majd; Zache, Torsten V.; Braverman, Boris; Kornjaca, Milan; Lukin, Alexander; Cantu, Sergio H.; Liu, Fangli; Wang, Sheng-Tao; Keesling, Alexander; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Zoller, Peter; Bylinskii, Alexei
• 署名单位: University of Innsbruck; Austrian Academy of Sciences; Harvard University; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Instituto de Fisica Fundamental (IFF); University of Toronto
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-3489
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09051-6
• 发表日期: 2025-06-12
• 关键词: lattice gauge-theories; Invariance; DYNAMICS

摘要

Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) describe a broad range of phenomena in condensed matter and particle physics. A prominent example is confinement, responsible for bounding quarks inside hadrons such as protons or neutrons1. When quark-antiquark pairs are separated, the energy stored in the string of gluon fields connecting them grows linearly with their distance, until there is enough energy to create new pairs from the vacuum and break the string. Although these phenomena are ubiquitous in LGTs, simulating the resulting dynamics is a challenging task2. Here we report the observation of string breaking in synthetic quantum matter using a programmable quantum simulator based on neutral atom arrays3, 4-5. We show that a (2 + 1)-dimensional LGT with dynamical matter can be efficiently implemented when the atoms are placed on a Kagome geometry6, with a local U(1) symmetry emerging from the Rydberg blockade7. Long-range Rydberg interactions naturally give rise to a linear confining potential for a pair of charges, allowing us to tune both their masses and the string tension. We experimentally probe string breaking in equilibrium by adiabatically preparing the ground state of the atom array in the presence of defects, distinguishing regions within the confined phase dominated by fluctuating strings or by broken string configurations. Finally, by harnessing local control over the atomic detuning, we quench string states and observe string-breaking dynamics exhibiting a many-body resonance phenomenon. Our work provides opportunities for exploring phenomena in high-energy physics using programmable quantum simulators.