Beecroft Building, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU
Dr Natalia Chepiga, University of Oxford
Abstract
Chains of Rydberg atoms have emerged as a powerful platform for exploring low-dimensional quantum physics. This success stems from the precise control of lattice geometries provided by optical tweezers, enabling access to a wide range of synthetic quantum phases. Experiments on one-dimensional arrays have driven tremendous progress in understanding quantum phase transitions into crystalline phases. However, the finite width of optical tweezers introduces small variations in the interatomic distances, resulting in quenched disorder in the interactions. In this seminar, I will discuss numerical modeling of how such disorder alters the nature of two critical regimes observed in experiments. First, following experimental protocols, we simulate Kibble–Zurek dynamics and find a crossover from the clean Ising transition to the infinite-randomness fixed point as the system size and disorder strength increase. Second, we show that the floating phase—an incommensurate Luttinger liquid currently at the center of many experimental studies—is localized by disorder while retaining short-range incommensurate correlations with the same dominant wave vector. Our numerical simulations thus reveal an additional conceptual challenge in studying critical phenomena using Rydberg-based quantum simulators.