Abstract:
Laser cooled trapped ions offer unprecedented control over both internal and external degrees of freedom at the single-particle level. They are considered among the foremost candidates for realizing quantum simulation and computation platforms that can outperform classical computers in specific tasks. In this talk I will show how linear arrays of trapped 171Yb+ ions can be used as a versatile platform for studying out-of-equilibrium many-body quantum systems and to implement quantum variational algorithms. I will show how a trapped-ion quantum simulator [1] allowed the implementation of a Quantum Approximate Optimization algorithm (QAOA) used to approximate the ground state energy of a long-range transverse field Ising model of up to 40 qubits [2]. Large linear ion chains also enabled the investigation of how confinement can suppress information propagation and thermalization of meson-like quasi-particles in a many-body system [3,4]. Finally, I will report on the observation of a Stark MBL in a long-range disorder-free system [5] and I will conclude outlining the prospect of simulation of dissipative Floquet dynamics [6].
[1] G. Pagano, et al., Quantum Sci. Technol., 4, 014004 (2019)
[2] G. Pagano, et al., PNAS 117, 41, 25396 (2020)
[3] F. Liu, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 150601 (2018)
[4] W. L. Tan, P. Becker, et al., Nature Phys. 17 (6), 742 (2021)
[5] W. Morong, et al., Nature 599, 393 (2021)
[6] P. Sierant, et al., Quantum 6, 638 (2022)
Simone Notarnicola
