Experimental Trapped-ion Quantum Simulation of the Kibble-Zurek dynamics in momentum space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an experimental quantum simulation of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in a transverse-field Ising model using a single trapped ion, confirming theoretical predictions of excitation scaling in momentum space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to simulate quantum critical dynamics in momentum space with high precision using trapped ions.

Findings

Measured excitation scaling matches theoretical predictions.

Successful simulation of quantum Kibble-Zurek dynamics.

High-accuracy probing of critical dynamics in momentum space.

Abstract

The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is the paradigm to account for the nonadiabatic dynamics of a system across a continuous phase transition. Its study in the quantum regime is hindered by the requisite of ground state cooling. We report the experimental quantum simulation of critical dynamics in the transverse-field Ising model by a set of Landau-Zener crossings in pseudo-momentum space, that can be probed with high accuracy using a single trapped ion. We test the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum regime in the momentum space and find the measured scaling of excitations is in accordance with the theoretical prediction.