Relativistic meson spectra on ion-trap quantum simulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how current ion-trap quantum simulators can be used to explore relativistic meson spectra, specifically within the E_8 quantum field theory regime, by analyzing spin chain models and absorption spectroscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simulate relativistic meson spectra on ion-trap devices, enabling the study of high-energy physics phenomena with current quantum technology.

Findings

Absorption spectroscopy can identify low-lying meson excitations in spin chain models.

Strong long-range suppression improves the accuracy of meson spectrum detection.

The approach is feasible even with small system sizes.

Abstract

The recent rapid experimental advancement in the engineering of quantum many-body systems opens the avenue to controlled studies of fundamental physics problems via digital or analog quantum simulations. Here, we systematically analyze the capability of analog ion traps to explore relativistic meson spectra on current devices. We focus on the E_8 quantum field theory regime, which arises due to longitudinal perturbations at the critical point of the transverse-field Ising model. As we show through exact numerics, for sufficiently strong long-range suppression in experimentally accessible spin chain models, absorption spectroscopy allows for the identification of the low-lying meson excitations with a good degree of accuracy even for small system sizes. Our proposal thus opens a way for probing salient features of quantum many-body systems reminiscent of meson properties in high-energy physics.