arXiv subjects

Javier Argüello-Luengo

Publications and source records attributed to Javier Argüello-Luengo.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum Kramers-Henneberger Transformation

The classical Kramers-Henneberger transformation connects, via a series of unitary transformations, the dynamics of a quantum particle of mass $m$ located in a trap at position $α(t)$, with the dynamics of a charge $e$ moving in an electric field $eE(t)=-m\ddotα(t)$ within the dipole approximation. In this paper, we extend the classical Kramers-Henneberger transformation to the quantum electrodynamic and quantum optical realm, by explicitly treating the trap location quantum mechanically, thus taking into account the quantum fluctuations of the time-dependent displacement force. Compared to the classical case, we show that quantum electrodynamic corrections appear, and we propose an optomechanical realization for the quantized position of the trap to show that such corrections can manifest in state-of-the-art experiments. These results open the path to novel quantum simulation of quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics of attoscience and ultrafast physics by using ultracold trapped atoms and ions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Quantum transport in a non-Hermitian 1D synthetic lattice: from quantum Zeno reflection to near-perfect absorption

We experimentally explore the absorption of a propagating wavepacket impinging upon a dissipative region in an engineered quantum system. We employ a 1D non-Hermitian synthetic lattice with an abrupt interface between dissipative and non-dissipative subchains, using the states of the electronic ground-state hyperfine manifold in a $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate as sites. By tuning the dissipation rate, we observe a progression from ballistic propagation, to near-perfect absorption, to quantum Zeno reflection. Guided by numerical simulations, we identify that optimal absorption occurs when tunneling and dissipation are properly matched, and find qualitative agreement with an idealized semi-infinite model across all dissipation regimes. Our results establish synthetic lattices as a versatile Quantum simulation platform for dissipation-engineered quantum transport and highlight controlled dissipation as a resource for tailoring quantum dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Optical lattice quantum simulator of dynamics beyond Born-Oppenheimer

Here, we propose a platform based on ultra-cold fermionic molecules trapped in optical lattices to simulate nonadiabatic effects, as they appear in certain molecular dynamical problems. The idea consists of a judicious choice of two rotational states as the simulated electronic or nuclear degrees of freedom, in which their dipolar interactions induce the required attractive or repulsive interactions between them. We benchmark our proposal by studying the scattering of an electron or a proton against a hydrogen atom, showing the effect of electronic exchange and inelastic ionization as the mass ratio between the simulated nuclei and electrons -- a tunable experimental parameter in our simulator -- becomes comparable. These benchmarks illustrate how the simulator can qualitatively emulate phenomena like those appearing in molecular dynamical problems even if the simulated interaction occurs in two-dimensions with a dipolar scaling. Beyond the molecular implementation proposed here, our proposal can be readily extrapolated to other atomic platforms, e.g., based on fermionic Rydberg atoms.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Eigenstate Thermalization and its breakdown in Quantum Spin Chains with Inhomogeneous Interactions

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is a successful theory that establishes the criteria for ergodicity and thermalization in isolated quantum many-body systems. In this work, we investigate the thermalization properties of spin-$ 1/2 $ XXZ chain with linearly-inhomogeneous interactions. We demonstrate that introduction of the inhomogeneous interactions leads to an onset of quantum chaos and thermalization, which, however, becomes inhibited for sufficiently strong inhomogeneity. To exhibit ETH, and to display its breakdown upon varying the strength of interactions, we probe statistics of energy levels and properties of matrix elements of local observables in eigenstates of the inhomogeneous XXZ spin chain. Moreover, we investigate the dynamics of the entanglement entropy and the survival probability which further evidence the thermalization and its breakdown in the considered model. We outline a way to experimentally realize the XXZ chain with linearly-inhomogeneous interactions in systems of ultracold atoms. Our results highlight a mechanism of emergence of ETH due to insertion of inhomogeneities in an otherwise integrable system and illustrate the arrest of quantum dynamics in presence of strong interactions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Engineering and harnessing long-range interactions for atomic quantum simulators

Interactions between quantum particles, such as electrons, are the source of important effects, ranging from superconductivity, to the formation of molecular bonds, or the stability of elementary compounds at high-energies. In this article, we illustrate how advances in the cold-atom community to further engineer such long-range interactions have stimulated the simulation of new regimes of these fundamental many-body problems. The goal is two-fold: first, to provide a comprehensive review of the different strategies proposed and/or experimentally realized to induce long-range interactions among atoms moving in optical potentials. Second, to showcase various fields where such platforms can offer new insights, ranging from the simulation of condensed matter phenomena to the study of lattice gauge theories, and the simulation of electronic configurations in chemistry. We then discuss the challenges and opportunities of these platforms compared to other complementary approaches based on digital simulation and quantum computation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Competing order in two-band Bose-Hubbard chains with extended-range interactions

Motivated by the recent progress in realizing and controlling extended Bose-Hubbard systems using excitonic or atomic devices, the present Letter theoretically investigates the case of a two-band Bose-Hubbard chain with nearest-neighbor interactions. Specifically, this study concentrates on the scenario where, due to the interactions, one band supports a density wave phase, i.e. a correlated insulating phase with spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry in the lattice, while the other band supports superfluid behavior. Using the density matrix renormalization group method, we show that supersolid order can emerge from such a combination, that is, an elusive quantum state that combines crystalline order with long-range phase coherence. Depending on the filling of the bands and the interband interaction strength, the supersolid phase competes with phase-separation, superfluid order, or Mott insulating density-wave order. As a possible setup to observe supersolidity, we propose the combination of a lower band supporting density-wave order and a thermally excited band that supports superfluidity due to weaker lattice confinement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Probing spontaneously symmetry-broken phases with spin-charge separation through noise correlation measurements

Spontaneously symmetry-broken (SSB) phases are locally ordered states of matter characterizing a large variety of physical systems. Because of their specific ordering, their presence is usually witnessed by means of local order parameters. Here, we propose an alternative approach based on statistical correlations of noise after the ballistic expansion of an atomic cloud. We indeed demonstrate that probing such noise correlators allows one to discriminate among different SSB phases characterized by spin-charge separation. As a particular example, we test our prediction on a 1D extended Fermi-Hubbard model, where the competition between local and nonlocal couplings gives rise to three different SSB phases: a charge density wave, a bond-ordering wave, and an antiferromagnet. Our numerical analysis shows that this approach can accurately capture the presence of these different SSB phases, thus representing an alternative and powerful strategy to characterize strongly interacting quantum matter.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Quantized Thouless pumps protected by interactions in dimerized Rydberg tweezer arrays

We study Thouless pumps, i.e., adiabatic topological transport, in an interacting spin chain described by the dimerized XXZ Hamiltonian. In the noninteracting case, quantized Thouless pumps can only occur when a topological singularity is encircled adiabatically. In contrast, here we show that, in the presence of interactions, such topological transport can even persist for exotic paths in which the system gets arbitrarily close to the noninteracting singularity. We illustrate the robustness of these exotic Thouless pumps through the behavior of the noninteracting singularity, which for sufficiently strong interactions splits into two singularities separated by a spontaneous antiferromagnetic insulator. We perform a numerical benchmark of these phenomena by means of tensor network simulations of ground-state physics and real-time adiabatic dynamics. Finally, we propose an experimental protocol with Floquet-driven Rydberg tweezer arrays.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Stabilization of Hubbard-Thouless pumps through nonlocal fermionic repulsion

Thouless pumping represents a powerful concept to probe quantized topological invariants in quantum systems. We explore this mechanism in a generalized Rice-Mele Fermi-Hubbard model characterized by the presence of competing onsite and intersite interactions. Contrary to recent experimental and theoretical results, showing a breakdown of quantized pumping induced by the onsite repulsion, we prove that sufficiently large intersite interactions allow for an interaction-induced recovery of Thouless pumps. Our analysis further reveals that the occurrence of stable topological transport at large interactions is connected to the presence of a spontaneous bond-order-wave in the ground-state phase diagram of the model. Finally, we discuss a concrete experimental setup based on ultracold magnetic atoms in an optical lattice to realize the newly introduced Thouless pump. Our results provide a new mechanism to stabilize Thouless pumps in interacting quantum systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Analog simulation of high harmonic generation in atoms

The demanding experimental access to the ultrafast dynamics of materials challenges our understanding of their electronic response to applied strong laser fields. For this purpose, trapped ultracold atoms with highly controllable potentials have become an enabling tool to describe phenomena in a scenario where some effects are more easily accessible and twelve orders of magnitude slower. In this work, we introduce a mapping between the parameters of attoscience platform and atomic cloud simulators, and propose an experimental protocol to access the emission spectrum of high harmonic generation, a regime that has so far been elusive to cold atom simulation. As we illustrate, the benchmark offered by these simulators can provide new insights on the conversion efficiency of extended and short nuclear potentials, as well as the response to applied elliptical polarized fields or ultrashort few-cycle pulses.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2023

Synthetic dimensions for topological and quantum phases: Perspective

In this Perspective article we report on recent progress on studies of synthetic dimensions, mostly, but not only, based on the research realized around the Barcelona groups (ICFO, UAB), Donostia (DIPC), Poznań (UAM), Kraków (UJ), and Allahabad (HRI). The concept of synthetic dimensions works particularly well in atomic physics, quantum optics, and photonics, where the internal degrees of freedom (Zeeman sublevels of the ground state, metastable excited states, or motional states for atoms, and angular momentum states or transverse modes for photons) provide the synthetic space. We describe our attempts to design quantum simulators with synthetic dimensions, to mimic curved spaces, artificial gauge fields, lattice gauge theories, twistronics, quantum random walks, and more.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Entanglement and squeezing of the optical field modes in high harmonic generation

Squeezing of optical fields, used as a powerful resource for many applications, and the radiation properties in the process of high harmonic generation have thus far been considered separately. In this Letter, we want to clarify that the joint quantum state of all the optical field modes in the process of high harmonic generation is in general entangled and squeezed. We show that this is already the case in the simplest scenario of driving uncorrelated atoms by a classical laser light field. The previous observation of product coherent states after the high harmonic generation process is a consequence of the assumption that the ground state depletion can be neglected, which is related to vanishing dipole moment correlations. Furthermore, we analyze how the resulting quadrature squeezing in the fundamental laser mode after the interaction can be controlled and explicitly show that all field modes are entangled.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

A generalized multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz: more accurate conformal data from a critical lattice model

The multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) provides a natural description of the ground state of a quantum critical Hamiltonian on the lattice. From an optimized MERA, one can extract the scaling dimensions of the underlying conformal field theory. However, extracting conformal data from the ascending superoperator derived from MERA seems to have a limited range of accuracy, even after increasing the bond dimension. Here, we propose an alternative ansatz based on an increasing number of disentangling layers. This leads to generalized versions of MERA that improve the extraction of scaling dimensions, as tested in the Gaussian MERA setting for the critical Ising model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2022

Tuning long-range fermion-mediated interactions in cold-atom quantum simulators

Engineering long-range interactions in cold-atom quantum simulators can lead to exotic quantum many-body behavior. Fermionic atoms in ultracold atomic mixtures can act as mediators, giving rise to long-range RKKY-type interactions characterized by the dimensionality and density of the fermionic gas. Here, we propose several tuning knobs, accessible in current experimental platforms, that allow to further control the range and shape of the mediated interactions, extending the existing quantum simulation toolbox. In particular, we include an additional optical lattice for the fermionic mediator, as well as anisotropic traps to change its dimensionality in a continuous manner. This allows us to interpolate between power-law and exponential decays, introducing an effective cutoff for the interaction range, as well as to tune the relative interaction strengths at different distances. Finally, we show how our approach allows to investigate frustrated regimes that were not previously accessible, where symmetry-protected topological phases as well as chiral spin liquids emerge.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Optomechanical strong coupling between a single cavity photon and a single atom

Single atoms coupled to a cavity offer unique opportunities as quantum optomechanical devices because of their small mass and strong interaction with light. A particular regime of interest in optomechanics is that of "single-photon strong coupling," where motional displacements on the order of the zero-point uncertainty are sufficient to shift the cavity resonance frequency by more than its linewidth. In many cavity QED platforms, however, this is unfeasible due to the large cavity linewidth. Here, we propose an alternative route in such systems, which instead relies on the coupling of atomic motion to the much narrower cavity-dressed atomic resonance frequency. We discuss and optimize the conditions in which the scattering properties of single photons from the atom-cavity system become highly entangled with the atomic motional wave function. We also analyze the prominent observable features of this optomechanical strong coupling, which include a per-photon motional heating that is significantly larger than the single-photon recoil energy, as well as mechanically-induced oscillations in time of the second-order correlation function of the emitted light. This physics should be realizable in current experimental setups, such as trapped atoms coupled to photonic crystal cavities, and more broadly opens the door to realizing qualitatively different phenomena beyond what has been observed in optomechanical systems thus far.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Engineering analog quantum chemistry Hamiltonians using cold atoms in optical lattices

Using quantum systems to efficiently solve quantum chemistry problems is one of the long-sought applications of near-future quantum technologies. In a recent work, ultra-cold fermionic atoms have been proposed for these purposes by showing us how to simulate in an analog way the quantum chemistry Hamiltonian projected in a lattice basis set. Here, we continue exploring this path and go beyond these first results in several ways. First, we numerically benchmark the working conditions of the analog simulator, and find less demanding experimental setups where chemistry-like behaviour in three-dimensions can still be observed. We also provide a deeper understanding of the errors of the simulation appearing due to discretization and finite size effects and provide a way to mitigate them. Finally, we benchmark the simulator characterizing the behaviour of two-electron atoms (He) and molecules (HeH$^+$) beyond the example considered in the original work.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Simulation of 2D Quantum Chemistry in Optical Lattices

Benchmarking numerical methods in quantum chemistry is one of the key opportunities that quantum simulators can offer. Here, we propose an analog simulator for discrete 2D quantum chemistry models based on cold atoms in optical lattices. We first analyze how to simulate simple models, like the discrete versions of H and H$_2^+$, using a single fermionic atom. We then show that a single bosonic atom can mediate an effective Coulomb repulsion between two fermions, leading to the analog of molecular Hydrogen in two dimensions. We extend this approach to larger systems by introducing as many mediating atoms as fermions, and derive the effective repulsion law. In all cases, we analyze how the continuous limit is approached for increasing optical lattice sizes.

quant-ph↗