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A generalized effective spin-chain model is developed for studies of strongly interacting spinor gases in a one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice. The spinor gas is mapped to a system of spinless fermions and a spin chain. A generalized effective spin-chain Hamiltonian that acts on the mapped system is developed to study the static and dynamic properties of the spinor gas. This provides a computationally efficient alternative tool to study strongly interacting spinor gases in 1D lattice systems. This formalism permits the study of spinor gases with arbitrary spin and statistics, providing a generalized approach for 1D strongly interacting gases. By virtue of its simplicity, it provides an easier tool to study and gain deeper insights into the system. In combination with the model defined previously for continuum systems, a unified framework is developed. Studying the mapped system using this formalism recreates the physics of spinor gas in 1D lattice. Additionally, the time evolution of a quenched system is studied. The generalized effective spin-chain formalism has potential applications in the study of a multitude of interesting phenomena arising in lattice systems such as high-Tc superconductivity and the spin-coherent and spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid regimes. 

Light-matter interacting systems involving multilevel atoms are appealing platforms for testing equilibrium and dynamical phenomena. Here we explore a tricritical Dicke model, where an ensemble of three-level systems interacts with a single light mode, through two different approaches: a generalized Holstein-Primakoff mapping and a treatment using the Gell-Mann matrices. Both methods are found to be equivalent in the thermodynamic limit. In equilibrium, the system exhibits a rich phase diagram where both continuous and discrete symmetries can be spontaneously broken. We characterize all the different types of symmetries according to their scaling behaviors. Far from the thermodynamic limit, considering just a few tens of atoms, the system already exhibits features that could help characterize both second- and first-order transitions in a potential experiment. Importantly, we show that the tricritical behavior is preserved when dissipation is taken into account. Moreover, the system develops a rich steady-state phase diagram with various regions of bistability, all of them converging at the tricritical point. Having multiple stable normal and superradiant phases opens prospective avenues for engineering interesting steady states by a proper choice of initial states and/or parameter quenching. 

The Dicke model describes the cooperative interaction of an ensemble of two-level atoms with a single-mode photonic field and exhibits a quantum phase transition as a function of light–matter coupling strength. Extending this model by incorporating short-range atom–atom interactions makes the problem intractable but is expected to produce new physical phenomena and phases. Here, we simulate such an extended Dicke model using a crystal of ErFeO₃, where the role of atoms (photons) is played by Er³⁺spins (Fe³⁺magnons). Through terahertz spectroscopy and magnetocaloric effect measurements as a function of temperature and magnetic field, we demonstrated the existence of a novel atomically ordered phase in addition to the superradiant and normal phases that are expected from the standard Dicke model. Further, we elucidated the nature of the phase boundaries in the temperature–magnetic-field phase diagram, identifying both first-order and second-order phase transitions. These results lay the foundation for studying multiatomic quantum optics models using well-characterized many-body solid-state systems.

 

Although the one-dimensional repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model has been intensively studied over many decades, a rigorous understanding of many aspects of the model is still lacking. In this work, based on the solutions to the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations, we provide a rigorous study on the following. (1) We calculate the fractional excitations of the system in various phases, from which we identify the parameter regime featuring the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid (SILL). We investigate the universal properties and the asymptotic of correlation functions of the SILL. (2) We study the interaction-driven phase transition and the associated criticality, and build up an essential connection between the contact susceptibilities and the variations of density, magnetization, and entropy with respect to the interaction strength. As an application of these concepts, which hold true for higher-dimensional systems, we propose a quantum cooling scheme based on the interaction-driven refrigeration cycle. 

Abstract Quantum many-body systems in one dimension (1D) exhibit some peculiar properties. In this article, we review some of our work on strongly interacting 1D spinor quantum gas. First, we discuss a generalized Bose–Fermi mapping that maps the charge degrees of freedom to a spinless Fermi gas and the spin degrees of freedom to a spin chain model. This also maps the strongly interacting system into a weakly interacting one, which is amenable for perturbative calculations. Next, based on this mapping, we construct an ansatz wavefunction for the strongly interacting system, using which many physical quantities can be conveniently calculated. We showcase the usage of this ansatz wavefunction by considering the collective excitations and quench dynamics of a harmonically trapped system. 

Some of the most exotic properties of the quantum vacuum are predicted in ultrastrongly coupled photon–atom systems; one such property is quantum squeezing leading to suppressed quantum fluctuations of photons and atoms. This squeezing is unique because (1) it is realized in the ground state of the system and does not require external driving, and (2) the squeezing can be perfect in the sense that quantum fluctuations of certain observables are completely suppressed. Specifically, we investigate the ground state of the Dicke model, which describes atoms collectively coupled to a single photonic mode, and we found that the photon–atom fluctuation vanishes at the onset of the superradiant phase transition in the thermodynamic limit of an infinite number of atoms. Moreover, when a finite number of atoms is considered, the variance of the fluctuation around the critical point asymptotically converges to zero, as the number of atoms is increased. In contrast to the squeezed states of flying photons obtained using standard generation protocols with external driving, the squeezing obtained in the ground state of the ultrastrongly coupled photon–atom systems is resilient against unpredictable noise.

 

The existence of quantum tricriticality and exotic phases are found in a tricritical Dicke triangle (TDT) where three cavities, each one containing an ensemble of three-level atoms, are connected to each other through the action of an artificial magnetic field. The conventional superradiant phase (SR) is connected to the normal phase through first- and second-order boundaries, with tricritical points located at the intersection of such boundaries. Apart from the SR phase, a chiral superradiant (CSR) phase is found by tuning the artificial magnetic field. This phase is characterized by a nonzero photon current and its boundary presents chiral tricritical points (CTCPs). Through the study of different critical exponents, we are able to differentiate the universality class of the CTCP and TCP from that of second-order critical points, as well as find distinctive critical behavior among the two different superradiant phases. The TDT can be implemented in various systems, including atoms in optical cavities as well as the circuit QED system, allowing the exploration of a great variety of critical manifolds.