



01870nas a2200181   4500008004100000245008300041210006900124260001300193490000600206520132100212100002001533700002101553700002401574700001801598700001801616700001701634856003701651       2020                        eng d00aTowards analog quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories with trapped ions0 aTowards analog quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories wit  c4/8/20200 v23 a<p>Gauge field theories play a central role in modern physics and are at the heart of the Standard Model of elementary particles and interactions. Despite significant progress in applying classical computational techniques to simulate gauge theories, it has remained a challenging task to compute the real-time dynamics of systems described by gauge theories. An exciting possibility that has been explored in recent years is the use of highly-controlled quantum systems to simulate, in an analog fashion, properties of a target system whose dynamics are difficult to compute. Engineered atom-laser interactions in a linear crystal of trapped ions offer a wide range of possibilities for quantum simulations of complex physical systems. Here, we devise practical proposals for analog simulation of simple lattice gauge theories whose dynamics can be mapped onto spin-spin interactions in any dimension. These include 1+1D quantum electrodynamics, 2+1D Abelian Chern-Simons theory coupled to fermions, and 2+1D pure Z2 gauge theory. The scheme proposed, along with the optimization protocol applied, will have applications beyond the examples presented in this work, and will enable scalable analog quantum simulation of Heisenberg spin models in any number of dimensions and with arbitrary interaction strengths.</p>1 aDavoudi, Zohreh1 aHafezi, Mohammad1 aMonroe, Christopher1 aPagano, Guido1 aSeif, Alireza1 aShaw, Andrew  uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/1908.03210