Realizing fracton order from long-range quantum entanglement in programmable Rydberg atom arrays

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to realize fracton order, a highly degenerate quantum phase, using long-range entanglement in programmable Rydberg atom arrays, advancing quantum memory robustness.

Contribution

It introduces a feasible approach to implement fracton order with pairwise Rydberg interactions, overcoming previous experimental limitations.

Findings

Demonstrates how long-range entanglement can realize fracton order.

Shows the platform enables error detection and correction.

Provides a pathway toward error-resistant quantum memory.

Abstract

Storing quantum information, unlike information in a classical computer, requires battling quantum decoherence, which results in a loss of information over time. To achieve error-resistant quantum memory, one would like to store the information in a quantum superposition of degenerate states engineered in such a way that local sources of noise cannot change one state into another, thus preventing quantum decoherence. One promising concept is that of fracton order -- a phase of matter with a large ground state degeneracy that grows subextensively with the system size. Unfortunately, the models realizing fractons are not friendly to experimental implementations as they require unnatural interactions between a substantial number (of the order of ten) of qubits. We demonstrate how this limitation can be circumvented by leveraging the long-range quantum entanglement created using only pairwise interactions between the code and ancilla qubits, realizable in programmable tweezer arrays of Rydberg atoms. We show that this platform also allows to detect and correct certain types of errors en route to the goal of true error-resistant quantum memory.