Engineering generalized Gibbs ensembles with trapped ions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a realistic method to engineer generalized Gibbs ensembles in trapped ion systems through tailored dissipation, enabling experimental study of steady states in open quantum many-body systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to realize and detect GGEs in trapped ions using engineered dissipation and sympathetic cooling techniques.

Findings

Demonstrates a feasible scheme for GGE stabilization in ion traps.

Proposes experimental observables to identify deviations from thermal states.

Introduces a mixed-species motional mode engineering technique.

Abstract

The concept of generalized Gibbs ensembles (GGEs) has been introduced to describe steady states of integrable models. Recent advances show that GGEs can also be stabilized in nearly integrable quantum systems when driven by external fields and open. Here, we present a weakly dissipative dynamics that drives towards a steady-state GGE and is realistic to implement in systems of trapped ions. We outline the engineering of the desired dissipation by a combination of couplings which can be realized with ion-trap setups and discuss the experimental observables needed to detect a deviation from a thermal state. We present a novel mixed-species motional mode engineering technique in an array of micro-traps and demonstrate the possibility to use sympathetic cooling to construct many-body dissipators. Our work provides a blueprint for experimental observation of GGEs in open systems and opens a new avenue for quantum simulation of driven-dissipative quantum many-body problems.