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Peiyun Ge

Publications and source records attributed to Peiyun Ge.

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Probing False Vacuum Decay and Bubble Nucleation in a Rydberg Atom Array

In quantum field theory (QFT), the "vacuum" is not just empty space but the lowest-energy state of a quantum field. If the energy landscape has multiple local minima, the local ground states are the false vacuum (FV) which can tunnel towards the global ground state (true vacuum, TV). This process exhibits signature akin to classical supercooled gas transitions and many-body tunneling in discrete quantum systems. Here, we study the FV decay and bubble nucleation in a Rydberg atom ring. The $1/r^6$ van-der-Waals interactions and individual-site addressability allow us to explore physics beyond the standard Ising model. We observe that the FV decay rate decreases exponentially with the inverse of the symmetry-breaking field, directly mirroring QFT predictions. Moreover, we demonstrate that even minor deviations from the ideal metastable state can cause a stark departure from this universal scaling law. Extending beyond short-time decay dynamics, we also examine resonant bubble nucleation, a feature distinctive to systems with discrete energy spectra. Our findings and methods open avenues for future studies of many-body tunneling in higher dimensions or more complex geometries.

quant-ph

Quadratic Quantum Speedup for Finding Independent Set of a Graph

A quadratic speedup of the quantum adiabatic algorithm (QAA) for finding independent sets (ISs) in a graph is proven analytically. In comparison to the best classical algorithm with $O(n^2)$ scaling, where $n$ is the number of vertexes, our quantum algorithm achieves a time complexity of $O(n^2)$ for finding a large IS, which reduces to $O(n)$ for identifying a size-2 IS. The complexity bounds we obtain are confirmed numerically for a specific case with the $O(n^2)$ quantum algorithm outperforming the classical greedy algorithm, that also runs in $O(n^2)$. The definitive analytical and numerical evidence for the quadratic quantum speedup benefited from an analytical framework based on the Magnus expansion in the interaction picture (MEIP), which overcomes the dependence on the ground state degeneracy encountered in conventional energy gap analysis. In addition, our analysis links the performance of QAA to the spectral structure of the median graph, bridging algorithmic complexity, graph theory, and experimentally realizable Rydberg Hamiltonians. The understanding gained provides practical guidance for optimizing near-term Rydberg atom experiments by revealing the significant impact of detuning on blockade violations.

quant-ph

Coherent Two-State Oscillations in False Vacuum Decay Regimes

Coherent two-state oscillations are observed in numerical simulations of the one-dimensional transverse-longitudinal-field Ising model (TLFIM) within false vacuum decay regimes. Starting from the false vacuum (a nearly fully polarized ferromagnetic state), we show that in moderate-sized systems, at resonances $h\approx 2J/n$ (with longitudinal field $h$, transverse field $J$, and an integer $n$), the expected decay can give way to coherent oscillations between the false vacuum and a symmetric resonant state. The oscillation frequency, i.e., the tunneling splitting, is observed notably to exhibit a superradiant-like $\sqrt{L}$ enhancement, as confirmed by a Schrieffer-Wolff analysis. In large chains, coherence remains for $n\gtrsim L/2$ due to bubble-size blockade and is robust against stronger transverse fields; for small $n$, long-range interactions can stabilize the oscillations by lifting multi-bubble degeneracies, establishing a robust many-body coherence mechanism beyond perturbative and finite-size limits.

quant-ph

Observation of average topological phase in disordered Rydberg atom array

Topological phases have been extensively studied over the past two decades, primarily in quantum pure states, where they are protected by exact symmetries. Recently, numerous studies have theoretically demonstrated the existence of average symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases in mixed quantum states, which naturally arise in real systems due to decoherence or disorder. Despite extensive experimental observations of exact SPT phases in various systems, ranging from solid-state materials to synthetic matters, average SPT phases are yet to be observed until this work. Here we report direct observations of disorder-induced many-body interacting average SPT phase in an atom array at half-filling, whereby random offsets to tweezer locations forming a lattice implement structural disorder, resulting in fluctuating long-range dipolar interactions between tweezer confined single atoms. The induced topological phase is vindicated by the spatially resolved atom-atom correlation functions for different forms of dimer compositions. The ground state degeneracy in disordered configurations is detected and compared to the regular lattice without disorder. By probing the quench dynamics of a highly excited state, we observe markedly slower decay of edge spin magnetization in comparison to the bulk spin, consistent with the presence of topologically protected edge modes in disordered lattices.

cond-mat.quant-gas

Quantum Hamiltonian Algorithms for Maximum Independent Sets

With qubits encoded into atomic ground and Rydberg states and situated on the vertexes of a graph, the conditional quantum dynamics of Rydberg blockade, which inhibits simultaneous excitation of nearby atoms, has been employed recently to find maximum independent sets following an adiabatic evolution algorithm hereafter denoted by HV [Science 376, 1209 (2022)]. An alternative algorithm, short named the PK algorithm, reveals that the independent sets diffuse over a media graph governed by a non-abelian gauge matrix of an emergent PXP model. This work shows the above two algorithms are mathematically equivalent, despite of their seemingly different physical implementations. More importantly, we demonstrated that although the two are mathematically equivalent, the PK algorithm exhibits more efficient and resource-saving performance. Within the same range of experimental parameters, our numerical studies suggest that the PK algorithm performs at least 25% better on average and saves at least $6\times10^6$ measurements ($\sim 900$ hours of continuous operation) for each graph when compared to the HV algorithm. We further consider the measurement error and point out that this may cause the oscillations in the performance of the HV's optimization process.

quant-ph