Thermalization dynamics of a gauge theory on a quantum simulator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates quantum simulation of a U(1) gauge theory's dynamics, revealing emergent thermalization and paving the way for exploring complex phenomena like pair production on quantum devices.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simulate gauge theory dynamics using a Bose-Hubbard system, enabling the study of thermalization and non-equilibrium phenomena in gauge theories.

Findings

Observation of emergent thermalization in gauge theory dynamics

Simulation of gauge field and matter interactions on a quantum device

Potential to study phenomena like string-breaking and pair production

Abstract

Gauge theories form the foundation of modern physics, with applications ranging from elementary particle physics and early-universe cosmology to condensed matter systems. We perform quantum simulations of the unitary dynamics of a U(1) symmetric gauge field theory and demonstrate emergent irreversible behavior. The highly constrained gauge theory dynamics is encoded in a one-dimensional Bose--Hubbard simulator, which couples fermionic matter fields through dynamical gauge fields. We investigate global quantum quenches and the equilibration to a steady state well approximated by a thermal ensemble. Our work may enable the investigation of elusive phenomena, such as Schwinger pair production and string-breaking, and paves the way for simulating more complex higher-dimensional gauge theories on quantum synthetic matter devices.