Observation of a Dissipation-Induced Classical to Quantum Transition

J Raftery,H E Türeci,A A Houck,D Sadri,S Schmidt

doi:10.1103/physrevx.4.031043

Abstract

Here, we report the experimental observation of a dynamical quantum phase transition in a strongly interacting open photonic system. The system studied, comprising a Jaynes-Cummings dimer realized on a superconducting circuit platform, exhibits a dissipation-driven localization transition. Signatures of the transition in the homodyne signal and photon number reveal this transition to be from a regime of classical oscillations into a macroscopically self-trapped state manifesting revivals, a fundamentally quantum phenomenon. This experiment also demonstrates a small-scale realization of a new class of quantum simulator, whose well-controlled coherent and dissipative dynamics is suited to the study of quantum many-body phenomena out of equilibrium.Received 10 December 2013DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.031043This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical Society

Highlights

An understanding of the physics of systems far from equilibrium [1] encompasses deep issues of fundamental importance such as dissipation, decoherence, emergence of classicality from intrinsically quantum systems [2], symmetry breaking and bifurcations, and how equilibrium is itself established [3,4,5,6]
Much of the important recent progress in experimental condensed matter physics has explored the equilibrium regime of strongly correlated synthetic matter, but it has been a long-standing goal to understand what new phenomena may arise as these systems are pushed away from equilibrium
Linear Josephson oscillations [10,11,12,13,14] and their anharmonic generalizations when interparticle interactions are relevant [15,16,17] have been observed for atomic BoseEinstein condensates (BECs) [18] and more recently in a system of exciton polaritons [19]

Summary

Introduction

An understanding of the physics of systems far from equilibrium [1] encompasses deep issues of fundamental importance such as dissipation, decoherence, emergence of classicality from intrinsically quantum systems [2], symmetry breaking and bifurcations, and how equilibrium is itself established [3,4,5,6].

Results

Conclusion