Ring-exchange physics in a chain of three-level ions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a chain of three-level trapped ions can simulate ring exchange interactions in ladder systems, enabling exploration of exotic quantum states like the d-wave Bose liquid with tunable parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ion-trap setup that mimics ladder-like bosonic systems with controllable ring exchange interactions, facilitating the study of correlated quantum phases.

Findings

Tunable transition between polarized and DBL regimes.

Observation of momentum distribution peak splitting in the DBL state.

Detection of oscillating pair correlation functions.

Abstract

In the presence of ring exchange interactions, bosons in a ladder-like lattice may form the bosonic analogon of a correlated metal, known as the d-wave Bose liquid (DBL). In this paper, we show that a chain of trapped ions with three internal levels can mimic a ladder-like system constrained to a maximum occupation of one boson per rung. The setup enables tunable ring exchange interactions, transitioning between a polarized regime with all bosons confined to one leg and the DBL regime. The latter state is characterized by a splitting of the peak in the momentum distribution and an oscillating pair correlation function.