Jakub Zakrzewski

We consider the dynamics in the one-dimensional quantum Ising model in which each spin coherently interacts with its phononic mode. The model is motivated by quantum simulators based on Rydberg atoms in tweezers or trapped ions. The configuration of two domain walls simulates the particle-antiparticle connecting string. We concentrate on the effect the local vibrations have on the dynamics of this initial state. Our study supplements recent investigations of string breaking, traditionally studied within quantum chromodynamics (QCD), to quantum many-body systems. Two regimes are identified depending on the strength of the coupling with local vibrations. For weak coupling, the string breaking is slowed down as compared to the dynamics in an isolated Ising string. The strong coupling leads to complicated dynamics in which the domain wall character of excitation is dissolved among many coupled states.

We use a quantum Monte Carlo method to investigate various classes of 2D spin models with long-range interactions at low temperatures. In particular, we study a dipolar XXZ model with U(1) symmetry that appears as a hard-core boson limit of an extended Hubbard model describing polarized dipolar atoms or molecules in an optical lattice. Tunneling, in such a model, is short-range, whereas density-density couplings decay with distance following a cubic power law. We investigate also an XXZ model with long-range couplings of all three spin components - such a model describes a system of ultracold ions in a lattice of microtraps. We describe an approximate phase diagram for such systems at zero and at finite temperature, and compare their properties. In particular, we compare the extent of crystalline, super?uid, and supersolid phases. Our predictions apply directly to current experiments with mesoscopic numbers of polar molecules and trapped ions.