Kibble-Zurek exponent and chiral transition of the period-4 phase of Rydberg chains

Abstract

Chains of Rydberg atoms have emerged as an amazing playground to study quantum physics in 1D. Playing with inter-atomic distances and laser detuning, one can in particular explore the commensurate-incommensurate transition out of charge-density waves through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and the possible presence of a chiral transition with dynamical exponent $z>1$. Here we address this problem theoretically with effective blockade models where the short-distance repulsions are replaced by a constraint of no double occupancy. For the period-4 phase, we show there is an Ashkin-Teller transition point with exponent $\nu=0.78$ surrounded by a direct chiral transition with a dynamical exponent $z=1.14$ and a Kibble-Zurek exponent $\mu=0.4$. For Rydberg atoms with a van der Waals potential, we suggest that the experimental value $\mu=0.25$ is due to a chiral transition with $z\simeq 1.9$ and $\nu\simeq 0.47$ surrounding an Ashkin-Teller transition close to the 4-state Potts universality.