New Frontiers in Quantum Simulation Enabled by Dipolar Ytterbium Tweezer Arrays

When individual quantum particles interact with each other strongly, the system as a whole can exhibit emergent properties that are strikingly different from those of its constituent parts. Understanding how and where these exotic quantum phases emerge remains one of the central challenges of modern physics. By creating highly controlled artificial systems using individual ultracold atoms trapped in laser beams, quantum matter can be studied under conditions that are difficult or impossible to realize in natural materials. Moreover, by tuning both the interactions and underlying geometry, one can explore transitions between different types of quantum behavior and characterize the associated critical phenomena. Through the fundamental insights gained in these experiments, new approaches to precision sensing, a deeper understanding of materials such as superconductors, and new pathways toward quantum computing are expected to be enabled. In addition, by advancing the fundamental understanding of quantum matter and expanding the capabilities of quantum simulation, this project contributes to the national quantum information science priority area, while helping to prepare the future quantum science workforce. The most exotic and delicate of these quantum phases, such as topologically ordered states including quantum spin liquids, remain especially difficult to realize and probe. Finite-size effects and disorder can obscure the most intriguing features of a topological phase, and preparing the true quantum ground state requires the removal of thermal entropy, a perennial challenge in cold-atom simulators. In this research program, these challenges are addressed through the use of a new alkaline-earth (ytterbium) optical tweezer array, which naturally realizes a variety of dipolar quantum spin models. The creation and characterization of quantum spin liquids is investigated, together with the generation of metrologically useful entanglement such as spin squeezing. These efforts rely critically on the ability to trap the Rydberg state, by which positional disorder is reduced substantially below that of previous dipolar Rydberg simulators. As the physics of quantum magnetism is studied with this Yb Rydberg simulator, new insight into real materials is developed that may carry implications for energy storage and for new types of electronics. Quantum spin liquids also sit at the intersection of quantum error correction and topological order, and experiments focused on chiral spin liquid phases could reveal signatures of topological anyons and inspire new quantum error-correcting codes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.