Chiral Spin Liquid in Rydberg Atom Arrays

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental realization of a chiral spin liquid phase in a Rydberg atom array, demonstrating topological order and a quantum phase transition in a dipolar XY model on a breathing kagome lattice.

Contribution

It provides the first numerical evidence of a chiral spin liquid in an experimentally feasible Rydberg atom system, revealing a phase transition driven by lattice geometry.

Findings

Evidence of chiral spin liquid phase from numerical calculations

Identification of a quantum phase transition between spin liquids

Observation of topological order via Chern number and entanglement spectrum

Abstract

Despite long-standing theoretical interest, the chiral spin liquid, a topologically ordered phase, has yet to be observed experimentally. Here we surprisingly find its emergence in an experimentally realized dipolar $\text{XY}$ model when Rydberg atoms are arranged in a breathing kagome lattice. Using the infinite density matrix renormalization group, we numerically calculate the ground state's chiral order parameter, spin-spin correlations, Chern number, and entanglement spectrum. Our numerical results provide strong evidence for the chiral spin liquid phase. Furthermore, we identify a quantum phase transition from a Dirac spin liquid to a chiral spin liquid as the lattice geometry is tuned from the isotropic kagome to the breathing kagome lattice.