Observation of string breaking on a (2 + 1)D Rydberg quantum simulator

Daniel González-Cuadra (), Majd Hamdan, Torsten V. Zache, Boris Braverman, Milan Kornjača, Alexander Lukin, Sergio H. Cantú, Fangli Liu, Sheng-Tao Wang, Alexander Keesling, Mikhail D. Lukin, Peter Zoller and Alexei Bylinskii ()
Additional contact information
Daniel González-Cuadra: University of Innsbruck
Majd Hamdan: QuEra Computing
Torsten V. Zache: University of Innsbruck
Boris Braverman: QuEra Computing
Milan Kornjača: QuEra Computing
Alexander Lukin: QuEra Computing
Sergio H. Cantú: QuEra Computing
Fangli Liu: QuEra Computing
Sheng-Tao Wang: QuEra Computing
Alexander Keesling: QuEra Computing
Mikhail D. Lukin: Harvard University
Peter Zoller: University of Innsbruck
Alexei Bylinskii: QuEra Computing

Nature, 2025, vol. 642, issue 8067, 321-326

Abstract: Abstract Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) describe a broad range of phenomena in condensed matter and particle physics. A prominent example is confinement, responsible for bounding quarks inside hadrons such as protons or neutrons1. When quark–antiquark pairs are separated, the energy stored in the string of gluon fields connecting them grows linearly with their distance, until there is enough energy to create new pairs from the vacuum and break the string. Although these phenomena are ubiquitous in LGTs, simulating the resulting dynamics is a challenging task2. Here we report the observation of string breaking in synthetic quantum matter using a programmable quantum simulator based on neutral atom arrays3–5. We show that a (2 + 1)-dimensional LGT with dynamical matter can be efficiently implemented when the atoms are placed on a Kagome geometry6, with a local U(1) symmetry emerging from the Rydberg blockade7. Long-range Rydberg interactions naturally give rise to a linear confining potential for a pair of charges, allowing us to tune both their masses and the string tension. We experimentally probe string breaking in equilibrium by adiabatically preparing the ground state of the atom array in the presence of defects, distinguishing regions within the confined phase dominated by fluctuating strings or by broken string configurations. Finally, by harnessing local control over the atomic detuning, we quench string states and observe string-breaking dynamics exhibiting a many-body resonance phenomenon. Our work provides opportunities for exploring phenomena in high-energy physics using programmable quantum simulators.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09051-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:642:y:2025:i:8067:d:10.1038_s41586-025-09051-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09051-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().