Engineering the non-Hermitian SSH model with skin effects in Rydberg atom arrays

TL;DR

This paper presents a practical scheme to realize a non-Hermitian SSH model with skin effects using Rydberg atom arrays, enabling exploration of non-Hermitian topological phenomena in a controllable quantum simulator.

Contribution

It introduces a novel implementation method for non-Hermitian topological models with Rydberg atoms, including synthetic gauge fields and dissipative channels, demonstrating robustness of skin effects.

Findings

Skin effect remains robust under parameter fluctuations.

Topological invariants are stable under open and periodic conditions.

The scheme offers a versatile platform for non-Hermitian physics exploration.

Abstract

We propose and systematically analyze a practical scheme for implementing a one-dimensional non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model using individually addressable Rydberg atom arrays. Our setup consists of an atomic chain with three-atom unit cells, in which a synthetic gauge field is generated by applying multi-color laser fields. By engineering fast dissipative channels for one auxiliary atom in each unit cell, the adiabatic elimination effectively gives rise to a non-Hermitian skin effect. We examine how fluctuations in the experimental parameters influence both the skin effect and the topological invariant under open and periodic boundary conditions in real space and find that both features remain highly robust. This work establishes a versatile, controllable, and programmable open-system quantum simulator with neutral atoms, providing a clear route for exploring rich non-Hermitian topological phenomena.