Large-scale 2+1D U(1) gauge theory with dynamical matter in a cold-atom quantum simulator

Year: 2025

Authors: Osborne J.J., McCulloch I.P., Yang B., Hauke P., Halimeh J.C.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Queensland, Sch Math & Phys, St Lucia, Qld, Australia; Max Planck Inst Quantum Opt, Garching, Germany; Munich Ctr Quantum Sci & Technol MCQST, Munich, Germany; Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Phys, State Key Lab Quantum Funct Mat, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China; Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Guangdong Basic Res Ctr Excellence Quantum Sci, Shenzhen, Peoples R China; Univ Trento, BEC Ctr, CNR, INO, Trento, Italy; Univ Trento, Dept Phys, Trento, Italy; Trento Inst Fundamental Phys & Applicat, TIFPA, INFN, Trento, Italy; Ludwig Maximilian Univ Munich, Dept Phys, Munich, Germany; Ludwig Maximilian Univ Munich, Arnold Sommerfeld Ctr Theoret Phys ASC, Munich, Germany.

Abstract: A major driver of quantum-simulator technology is the prospect of probing high-energy phenomena in synthetic quantum matter setups at a high level of control and tunability. Here, we propose an experimentally feasible realization of a large-scale 2 + 1D U(1) gauge theory with dynamical matter and gauge fields in a cold-atom quantum simulator with spinless bosons. We present the full mapping of the corresponding Gauss’s law onto the bosonic computational basis. We then show that the target gauge theory can be faithfully realized and stabilized by an emergent gauge protection term in a two-dimensional single-species Bose-Hubbard optical Lieb superlattice with two spatial periods along either direction, thereby requiring only moderate experimental resources already available in current cold-atom setups. Using infinite matrix product states, we calculate numerical benchmarks for adiabatic sweeps and global quench dynamics that further confirm the fidelity of the mapping. Our work brings quantum simulators of gauge theories a significant step forward in terms of investigating particle physics in higher spatial dimensions, and is readily implementable in existing cold-atom platforms.

Journal/Review: COMMUNICATIONS PHYSICS

Volume: 8 (1)      Pages from: 273-1  to: 273-7

More Information: J.C.H. is grateful to Guo-Xian Su for stimulating discussions. B.Y. acknowledges support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant 2022YFA1405800), NSFC (Grant No. 12274199), Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (Grant No. KQTD20240729102026004), Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (Grant No. 2023B0303000011), and Guangdong Provincial Quantum Science Strategic Initiative (Grant No. GDZX2304006, Grant No. GDZX2405006). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 804305). I.P.M. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grants No. DP190101515 and DP200103760. P.H. acknowledges support by the Google Research Scholar Award ProGauge, Provincia Autonoma di Trento, and Q@TN-Quantum Science and Technology in Trento. J.J.O. and J.C.H. acknowledges funding by the Max Planck Society, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy-EXC-2111-390814868, the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 101165667)-ERC Starting Grant QuSiGauge, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programm (Grant Agreement No. 948141)-ERC Starting Grant SimUcQuam. Numerical simulations were performed on The University of Queensland’s School of Mathematics and Physics Core Computing Facility getafix. This work is part of the Quantum Computing for High-Energy Physics (QC4HEP) working group.
KeyWords: Invariance; Gas
DOI: 10.1038/s42005-025-02144-8