Quantum simulations and many-body physics with light

TL;DR

This review explores how light-based systems are used to simulate complex quantum many-body phenomena, covering theoretical models, out-of-equilibrium effects, exotic phases, and experimental platforms.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in quantum simulation with light, highlighting new theoretical proposals and experimental developments across various platforms.

Findings

Prediction of exotic phases like super-solidity and Majorana modes

Analysis of out-of-equilibrium many-body effects in driven CRAs

Review of experimental efforts in circuit QED, photonic crystals, and nanophotonics

Abstract

In this review we discuss the works in the area of quantum simulation and many-body physics with light, from the early proposals on equilibrium models to the more recent works in driven dissipative platforms. We start by describing the founding works on Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model and the corresponding photon-blockade induced Mott transitions and continue by discussing the proposals to simulate effective spin models and fractional quantum Hall states in coupled resonator arrays (CRAs). We also analyze the recent efforts to study out-of-equilibrium many-body effects using driven CRAs, including the predictions for photon fermionization and crystallization in driven rings of CRAs as well as other dynamical and transient phenomena. We try to summarise some of the relatively recent results predicting exotic phases such as super-solidity and Majorana like modes and then shift our attention to developments involving one dimensional nonlinear slow light setups. There the simulation of strongly correlated phases characterising Tonks-Girardeau gases, Luttinger liquids, and interacting relativistic fermionic models is described. We review the major theory results and also briefly outline recent developments in ongoing experimental efforts involving different platforms in circuit QED, photonic crystals and nanophotonic fibers interfaced with cold atoms.