14,475 research outputs found
Quantum Hysteresis in Coupled Light-Matter Systems
We investigate the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics of a canonical
light-matter system, namely the Dicke model, when the light-matter interaction
is ramped up and down through a cycle across the quantum phase transition. Our
calculations reveal a rich set of dynamical behaviors determined by the cycle
times, ranging from the slow, near adiabatic regime through to the fast, sudden
quench regime. As the cycle time decreases, we uncover a crossover from an
oscillatory exchange of quantum information between light and matter that
approaches a reversible adiabatic process, to a dispersive regime that
generates large values of light-matter entanglement. The phenomena uncovered in
this work have implications in quantum control, quantum interferometry, as well
as in quantum information theory.Comment: 9 pages and 4 figure
Observation of a dissipative phase transition in a one-dimensional circuit QED lattice
Condensed matter physics has been driven forward by significant experimental
and theoretical progress in the study and understanding of equilibrium phase
transitions based on symmetry and topology. However, nonequilibrium phase
transitions have remained a challenge, in part due to their complexity in
theoretical descriptions and the additional experimental difficulties in
systematically controlling systems out of equilibrium. Here, we study a
one-dimensional chain of 72 microwave cavities, each coupled to a
superconducting qubit, and coherently drive the system into a nonequilibrium
steady state. We find experimental evidence for a dissipative phase transition
in the system in which the steady state changes dramatically as the mean photon
number is increased. Near the boundary between the two observed phases, the
system demonstrates bistability, with characteristic switching times as long as
60 ms -- far longer than any of the intrinsic rates known for the system. This
experiment demonstrates the power of circuit QED systems for studying
nonequilibrium condensed matter physics and paves the way for future
experiments exploring nonequilbrium physics with many-body quantum optics
- …