Realization and detection of Kitaev quantum spin liquid with Rydberg atoms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to realize and detect the Kitaev chiral spin liquid phase using Rydberg atoms arranged in a deformed honeycomb lattice, enabling exploration of non-Abelian anyons in atomic systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel laser-assisted dipole-dipole interaction mechanism to simulate the Kitaev model with high precision in Rydberg atom arrays.

Findings

Realization of the pure Kitaev model with Rydberg atoms.

Detection strategies for chiral Majorana edge modes.

Proposal to induce the non-Abelian spin liquid phase with Zeeman fields.

Abstract

The Kitaev chiral spin liquid has captured widespread interest in recent decades because of its intrinsic non-Abelian excitations, yet the experimental realization is challenging. Here we propose to realize and detect Kitaev chiral spin liquid in a deformed honeycomb array of Rydberg atoms. Through a novel laser-assisted dipole-dipole interaction mechanism to generate both effective hopping and pairing terms for hard-core bosons, together with van der Waals interactions, we achieve the pure Kitaev model with high precision. The gapped non-Abelian spin liquid phase is then obtained by introducing Zeeman fields. Moreover, we propose innovative strategies to probe the chiral Majorana edge modes by light Bragg scattering and by imagining their chiral motion. Our work broadens the range of exotic quantum many-body phases that can be realized and detected in atomic systems, and makes an important step toward manipulating non-Abelian anyons.