Quantum simulation of small-polaron formation with trapped ions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to simulate small-polaron physics using trapped ions, enabling exploration of polaron formation and properties in a controllable quantum system.

Contribution

It introduces a trapped-ion setup to simulate the Holstein model's anti-adiabatic regime and demonstrates how to observe polaronic features experimentally.

Findings

Realistic parameters can achieve strong excitation-phonon coupling.

The system can realize the anti-adiabatic regime of the Holstein model.

Proposed measurements can validate polaron formation.

Abstract

We propose a quantum simulation of small-polaron physics using a one-dimensional system of trapped ions acted upon by off-resonant standing waves. This system, envisioned as an array of microtraps, in the single-excitation case allows the realization of the anti-adiabatic regime of the Holstein model. We show that the strong excitation-phonon coupling regime, characterized by the formation of small polarons, can be reached using realistic values of the relevant system parameters. Finally, we propose measurements of the quasiparticle residue and the average number of phonons in the ground state, experimental probes validating the polaronic character of the phonon-dressed excitation.