Quantum simulation of Heisenberg spin chains with next nearest neighbor interactions in coupled cavities

TL;DR

This paper presents a scheme to simulate one-dimensional Heisenberg spin models with adjustable nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions using photon-coupled micro-cavities, enabling exploration of complex quantum phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, robust method to realize tunable spin interactions in micro-cavity systems, facilitating the study of frustration and disorder in quantum many-body physics.

Findings

Able to arbitrarily adjust NN and next-NN coupling ratios

Simulation of frustration phenomena in 1D systems

Suppression of decoherence due to lack of atomic excitations

Abstract

We propose a scheme to simulate one-dimensional XXZ-type Heisenberg spin models with competing interactions between nearest-neighbors (NNs) and next-NNs in photon-coupled micro-cavities. Our scheme, for the first time, exploits the rich resources and flexible controls available in such a system to realize arbitrarily adjustable ratios between the effective NN and next-NN coupling strengths. Such powerful capability allows us to simulate frustration phenomena and disorder behaviors in 1-d systems arising from next-NN interactions, a large class of problems of great importance in condensed matter physics. Our scheme is robust due to the lack of atomic excitations which suppresses spontaneous emission and cavity decay strongly.