Mesoscopic Spin-Boson Models of Trapped Ions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how trapped ion systems can simulate mesoscopic spin-boson models, revealing unique quantum effects like revivals due to the finite size of the phonon bath.

Contribution

It introduces a method to realize various spin-boson models in trapped ions and analyzes the specific case of the Ohmic bath with novel mesoscopic phenomena.

Findings

Quantum revivals observed in spin evolution

Implementation of Ohmic spin-boson model with a single ion

Mesoscopic effects due to finite phonon bath size

Abstract

Trapped ions arranged in Coulomb crystals provide us with the elements to study the physics of a single spin coupled to a boson bath. In this work we show that optical forces allow us to realize a variety of spin-boson models, depending on the crystal geometry and the laser configuration. We study in detail the Ohmic case, which can be implemented by illuminating a single ion with a travelling wave. The mesoscopic character of the phonon bath in trapped ions induces new effects like the appearance of quantum revivals in the spin evolution.