Abstract :
[en] In 1996, Lloyd [1] showed that the dynamics of complex many-body quantum systems can be efficiently simulated by quantum computers, an idea first put forward by Manin [2] and further developed by Feynman [3]. Although the first quantum computers of a few qubits have been realised experimentally [4, 5], the advent of scalable quantum computers might take another few decades. An alternative tool in the context of simulation is a highly controllable quantum system able to mimic the dynamics of other complex quantum systems, known as an analog quantum simulator. Cold neutral atoms and trapped ions have been shown to be versatile quantum simulators [6, 7] thanks to their high flexibility, controllability, and scalability. They permit one to study a wide range of problems arising from atomic physics, relativistic quantum physics, or cosmology [8]. Since neutral atoms do not carry any net charge, the simulation of electric and magnetic condensed matter phenomena, such as the spin Hall effect, seems out of reach. To overcome this apparent difficulty, the idea has been proposed to create artificial electromagnetic potentials for neutral atoms based on atom-light interaction [9– 12]. These artificial potentials act on neutral atoms as real electromagnetic potentials act on charged particles. Many works on artificial gauge potentials induced by atom-light interactions adopt a single-particle approach [12]. The predicted potentials are then supposed to be valid for a system of weakly interacting atoms. So far, the consequences of atom-atom interactions on the generation of artificial gauge fields has little been studied. The aim of this work is to study the artificial gauge fields arising from the interaction of two Rydberg atoms driven by a common laser field [13]. In this situation, we show that the combined atom-atom and atom-field interactions give rise to nonuniform, artificial gauge potentials. We identify the mechanism responsible for the emergence of these gauge potentials. Analytical expressions for the latter indicate that the strongest artificial magnetic fields are reached in the regime intermediate between the dipole blockade regime and the regime in which the atoms are sufficiently far apart such that atom-light interaction dominates over atom-atom interactions. We discuss the differences and similarities of artificial gauge fields originating from resonant dipole-dipole [14] and van der Waals [15] interactions. We also give an estimation of experimentally attainable artificial magnetic fields resulting from this mechanism and we discuss their detection through the deflection of the atomic motion.
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