Non-Hermitian dynamics and PT-symmetry breaking in interacting mesoscopic Rydberg platforms

José A. S. Lourenço, Gerard Higgins, Chi Zhang, Markus Hennrich, and Tommaso Macrì
Phys. Rev. A 106, 023309 – Published 11 August 2022

Abstract

We simulate the dissipative dynamics of a mesoscopic system of long-range interacting particles which can be mapped into non-Hermitian spin models with a PT symmetry. We find rich PT phase diagrams with PT-symmetric and PT-broken phases. The dynamical regimes can be further enriched by modulating tunable parameters of the system. We outline how the PT symmetries of such systems may be probed by studying their dynamics. We note that systems of Rydberg atoms and systems of Rydberg ions with strong dipolar interactions are particularly well suited for such studies. We present a viable proposal for implementing non-Hermitian physics with PT symmetry in Rydberg systems. We show that for realistic parameters, long-range interactions allow the emergence of new PT-symmetric regions, generating new PT phase transitions. In addition, such PT-symmetry phase transitions are found by changing the configurations of the Rydberg atoms. We propose a postselection scheme on an ensemble of Rydberg ions described by an effective three-level system. Detecting the population dynamics, the system shows an oscillatory behavior in the PT-unbroken phase and a stationary population for long times in the PT-broken phase.

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  • Received 11 November 2021
  • Revised 5 July 2022
  • Accepted 1 August 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.106.023309

©2022 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

José A. S. Lourenço1,2, Gerard Higgins2, Chi Zhang2, Markus Hennrich2, and Tommaso Macrì1

  • 1Departamento de Física Teórica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, Lagoa Nova, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970, Brazil
  • 2Department of Physics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden

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Issue

Vol. 106, Iss. 2 — August 2022

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