Discrete Truncated Wigner Approximation Research Articles

Benchmarking discrete truncated Wigner approximation and neural network quantum states with the exact dynamics in a Rydberg atomic chain

We benchmark the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) and Neural quantum states (NQS) based on restricted Boltzmann-like machines with the exact excitation and correlation dynamics in a chain of ten Rydberg atoms. The initial state is where all atoms are in their electronic ground state. We characterize the excitation dynamics using the maximum and time-averaged number of Rydberg excitations. DTWA results are different from the exact dynamics for large Rydberg-Rydberg interactions. In contrast, by increasing the number of hidden spins, the NQS can be improved but still limited to short-time dynamics. Interestingly, irrespective of interaction strengths, the time-averaged number of excitations obtained using NQS is in excellent agreement with the exact results. Concerning the calculation of quantum correlations, for instance, second-order bipartite and average two-site Rényi entropies, NQS looks more promising. Finally, we discuss the existence of a power law scaling for the initial growth of average two-site Rényi entropy.

Collective radiative interactions in the discrete truncated Wigner approximation

Interfaces of light and matter serve as a platform for exciting many-body physics and photonic quantum technologies. Due to the recent experimental realization of atomic arrays at sub-wavelength spacings, collective interaction effects such as superradiance have regained substantial interest. Their analytical and numerical treatment is however quite challenging. Here we develop a semiclassical approach to this problem that allows to describe the coherent and dissipative many-body dynamics of interacting spins while taking into account lowest-order quantum fluctuations. For this purpose we extend the discrete truncated Wigner approximation, originally developed for unitarily coupled spins, to include collective, dissipative spin processes by means of truncated correspondence rules. This maps the dynamics of the atomic ensemble onto a set of semiclassical, numerically inexpensive stochastic differential equations. We benchmark our method with exact results for the case of Dicke decay, which shows excellent agreement. For small arrays we compare to exact simulations, again showing good agreement at early times and at moderate to strong driving, and to a second order cumulant expansion. We conclude by studying the radiative properties of a spatially extended three-dimensional, coherently driven gas and compare the coherence of the emitted light to experimental results.

Validating Phase-Space Methods with Tensor Networks in Two-Dimensional Spin Models with Power-Law Interactions.

Using a recently developed extension of the time-dependent variational principle for matrix product states, we evaluate the dynamics of 2D power-law interacting XXZ models, implementable in a variety of state-of-the-art experimental platforms. We compute the spin squeezing as a measure of correlations in the system, and compare to semiclassical phase-space calculations utilizing the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA). We find the latter efficiently and accurately captures the scaling of entanglement with system size in these systems, despite the comparatively resource-intensive tensor network representation of the dynamics. We also compare the steady-state behavior of DTWA to thermal ensemble calculations with tensor networks. Our results open a way to benchmark dynamical calculations for two-dimensional quantum systems, and allow us to rigorously validate recent predictions for the generation of scalable entangled resources for metrology in these systems.

Simulating the generation of spin squeezing in a Rydberg atomic array for quantum metrology via a dissipative discrete truncated Wigner approximation

An atomic ensemble with many-body entanglement is desirable for precision measurement. As a type of such quantum state, the spin squeezed state has been pursued in both cold and warm atoms for applications of a quantum-enhanced atomic clock, interferometer, and magnetometer. Here, we report the numerical simulation of many-body dynamics in a Rydberg atomic array with dipole–dipole interaction, and evaluate the generation of spin squeezing. The method builds on the dissipative discrete truncated Wigner approximation, which combines the mean-field dynamics of a spin ensemble with Monte Carlo sampling. By taking into account experimental imperfections such as spin decoherence, we apply this approach to the dynamics in both strontium and rubidium Rydberg atomic arrays with the current available scale. This offers the possibility to accurately simulate the many-body dynamics of interacting quantum systems in achievable platforms for application of quantum simulation and quantum metrology.

Hybrid discrete-continuous truncated Wigner approximation for driven, dissipative spin systems

We present a systematic approach for the semiclassical treatment of many-body dynamics of interacting, open spin systems. Our approach overcomes some of the shortcomings of the recently developed discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) based on Monte-Carlo sampling in a discrete phase space that improves the classical treatment by accounting for lowest-order quantum fluctuations. We provide a rigorous derivation of the DTWA by embedding it in a continuous phase space, thereby introducing a hybrid discrete-continuous truncated Wigner approximation (DCTWA). We derive a set of operator-differential mappings that yield an exact equation of motion (EOM) for the continuous SU(2) Wigner function of spins. The standard DTWA is then recovered by a systematic neglection of specific terms in this exact EOM. The hybrid approach permits us to determine the validity conditions and to gain detailed understanding of the quality of the approximation, paving the way for systematic improvements. Furthermore, we show that the continuous embedding allows for a straightforward extension of the method to open spin systems subject to dephasing, losses and incoherent drive, while preserving the key advantages of the discrete approach, such as a positive definite Wigner distribution of typical initial states. We derive exact stochastic differential equations for processes which cannot be described by the standard DTWA due to the presence of non-classical noise. We illustrate our approach by applying it to the dissipative dynamics of Rydberg excitation of one-dimensional arrays of laser-driven atoms and compare it to exact results for small systems.

Driven-Dissipative Criticality within the Discrete Truncated Wigner Approximation.

We present an approach to the numerical simulation of open quantum many-body systems based on the semiclassical framework of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation. We establish a quantum jump formalism to integrate the quantum master equation describing the dynamics of the system, which we find to be exact in both the noninteracting limit and the limit where the system is described by classical rate equations. We apply our method to simulation of the paradigmatic dissipative Ising model, where we are able to capture the critical fluctuations of the system beyond the level of mean-field theory.

Semiclassical simulations predict glassy dynamics for disordered Heisenberg models

We numerically study out-of-equilibrium dynamics in a family of Heisenberg models with $1/r^6$ power-law interactions and positional disorder. Using the semi-classical discrete truncated Wigner approximation (dTWA) method, we investigate the time evolution of the magnetization and ensemble-averaged single-spin purity for a strongly disordered system after initializing the system in an out-of-equilibrium state. We find that both quantities display robust glassy behavior for almost any value of the anisotropy parameter of the Heisenberg Hamiltonian. Furthermore, a systematic analysis allows us to quantitatively show that, for all the scenarios considered, the stretch power lies close to the one analytically obtained in the Ising limit. This indicates that glassy relaxation behavior occurs widely in disordered quantum spin systems, independent of the particular symmetries and integrability of the Hamiltonian.

Realistic simulations of spin squeezing and cooperative coupling effects in large ensembles of interacting two-level systems

We describe an efficient numerical method for simulating the dynamics of interacting spin ensembles in the presence of dephasing and decay. The method builds on the discrete truncated Wigner approximation for isolated systems, which combines the mean-field dynamics of a spin ensemble with a Monte Carlo sampling of discrete initial spin values to account for quantum correlations. Here we show how this approach can be generalized for dissipative spin systems by replacing the deterministic mean-field evolution by a stochastic process, which describes the decay of coherences and populations while preserving the length of each spin. We demonstrate the application of this technique for simulating nonclassical spin-squeezing effects or the dynamics and steady states of cavity QED models with hundred thousand interacting two-level systems and without relying on any symmetries. This opens up the possibility to perform accurate real-scale simulations of a diverse range of experiments in quantum optics or with solid-state spin ensembles under realistic laboratory conditions.

Fragility of classical Hamiltonian period doubling to quantum fluctuations

We add quantum fluctuations to a classical period-doubling Hamiltonian time crystal, replacing the $N$ classical interacting angular momenta with quantum spins of size $l$. The full permutation symmetry of the Hamiltonian allows a mapping to a bosonic model and the application of exact diagonalization for a quite large system size. In the thermodynamic limit $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ the model is described by a system of Gross-Pitaevskii equations whose classical-chaos properties closely mirror the finite-$N$ quantum chaos. For $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, and $l$ finite, Rabi oscillations mark the absence of persistent period doubling, which is recovered for $l\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ with Rabi-oscillation frequency tending exponentially to 0. For the chosen initial conditions, we can represent this model in terms of Pauli matrices and apply the discrete truncated Wigner approximation. For finite $l$ this approximation reproduces no Rabi oscillations but correctly predicts the absence of period doubling. Our results show the instability of time-translation symmetry breaking in this classical system even to the smallest quantum fluctuations, because of tunneling effects.

Generalized discrete truncated Wigner approximation for nonadiabatic quantum-classical dynamics.

Nonadiabatic molecular dynamics occur in a wide range of chemical reactions and femtochemistry experiments involving electronically excited states. These dynamics are hard to treat numerically as the system's complexity increases, and it is thus desirable to have accurate yet affordable methods for their simulation. Here, we introduce a linearized semiclassical method, the generalized discrete truncated Wigner approximation (GDTWA), which is well-established in the context of quantum spin lattice systems, into the arena of chemical nonadiabatic systems. In contrast to traditional continuous mapping approaches, e.g., the Meyer-Miller-Stock-Thoss and the spin mappings, GDTWA samples the electron degrees of freedom in a discrete phase space and thus forbids an unphysical unbounded growth of electronic state populations. The discrete sampling also accounts for an effective reduced but non-vanishing zero-point energy without an explicit parameter, which makes it possible to treat the identity operator and other operators on an equal footing. As numerical benchmarks on two linear vibronic coupling models and Tully's models show, GDTWA has a satisfactory accuracy in a wide parameter regime, independent of whether the dynamics is dominated by relaxation or by coherent interactions. Our results suggest that the method can be very adequate to treat challenging nonadiabatic dynamics problems in chemistry and related fields.

Effect of Active Photons on Dynamical Frustration in Cavity QED.

We study the far-from-equilibrium dynamical regimes of a many-body spin-boson model with disordered couplings relevant for cavity QED and trapped ion experiments, using the discrete truncated Wigner approximation. We focus on the dynamics of spin observables upon varying the disorder strength and the frequency of the photons, finding that the latter can considerably alter the structure of the system's dynamical responses. When the photons evolve at a similar rate as the spins, they can induce qualitatively distinct frustrated dynamics characterized by either logarithmic or algebraically slow relaxation. The latter illustrates resilience of glassylike dynamics in the presence of active photonic degrees of freedom, suggesting that disordered quantum many-body systems with resonant photons or phonons can display a rich diagram of nonequilibrium responses, with near future applications for quantum information science.

Performance evaluation of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation for quench dynamics of quantum spin systems with long-range interactions

The discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA) is a powerful tool for analyzing dynamics of quantum spin systems. Since the DTWA includes the leading-order quantum corrections to a mean-field approximation, it is naturally expected that the DTWA becomes more accurate when the range of interactions of the system increases. However, quantitative corroboration of this expectation is still lacking mainly because it is generally difficult in a large system to evaluate a timescale on which the DTWA is quantitatively valid. In order to investigate how the validity timescale depends on the interaction range, we analyze dynamics of quantum spin models with a step function type interaction subjected to a sudden quench of a magnetic field by means of both DTWA and its extension including the second-order correction, which is derived from the Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon equation. We also develop a formulation for calculating the second-order R\'enyi entropy within the framework of the DTWA. By comparing the time evolution of the R\'enyi entropy computed by the DTWA with that by the extension including the correction, we find that both in the one- and two-dimensional systems the validity timescale increases algebraically with the range of the step function type interaction.

Spin Squeezing with Short-Range Spin-Exchange Interactions.

We investigate many-body spin squeezing dynamics in an XXZ model with interactions that fall off with distance r as 1/r^{α} in D=2 and 3 spatial dimensions. In stark contrast to the Ising model, we find a broad parameter regime where spin squeezing comparable to the infinite-range α=0 limit is achievable even when interactions are short ranged, α>D. A region of "collective" behavior in which optimal squeezing grows with system size extends all the way to the α→∞ limit of nearest-neighbor interactions. Our predictions, made using the discrete truncated Wigner approximation, are testable in a variety of experimental cold atomic, molecular, and optical platforms.

Discrete truncated Wigner approach to dynamical phase transitions in Ising models after a quantum quench

By means of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation we study dynamical phase transitions arising in the steady state of transverse-field Ising models after a quantum quench. Starting from a fully polarized ferromagnetic initial condition these transitions separate a phase with nonvanishing magnetization along the ordering direction from a symmetric phase upon increasing the transverse field. We consider two paradigmatic cases, a one-dimensional long-range model with power-law interactions $\propto 1/r^{\alpha}$ decaying algebraically as a function of distance $r$ and a two-dimensional system with short-range nearest-neighbour interactions. In the former case we identify dynamical phase transitions for $\alpha \lesssim 2$ and we extract the critical exponents from a data collapse of the steady state magnetization for up to 1200 lattice sites. We find identical exponents for $\alpha \lesssim 0.5$, suggesting that the dynamical transitions in this regime fall into the same universality class as the nonergodic mean-field limit. The two-dimensional Ising model is believed to be thermalizing, which we also confirm using exact diagonalization for small system sizes. Thus, the dynamical transition is expected to correspond to the thermal phase transition, which is consistent with our data upon comparing to equilibrium quantum Monte-Carlo simulations. We further test the accuracy of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation by comparing against numerically exact methods such as exact diagonalization, tensor network as well as artificial neural network states and we find good quantitative agreement on the accessible time scales. Finally, our work provides an additional contribution to the understanding of the range and the limitations of qualitative and quantitative applicability of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation.

A generalized phase space approach for solving quantum spin dynamics

Numerical techniques to efficiently model out-of-equilibrium dynamics in interacting quantum many-body systems are key for advancing our capability to harness and understand complex quantum matter. Here we propose a new numerical approach which we refer to as generalized discrete truncated Wigner approximation (GDTWA). It is based on a discrete semi-classical phase space sampling and allows to investigate quantum dynamics in lattice spin systems with arbitrary S ≥ 1/2. We show that the GDTWA can accurately simulate dynamics of large ensembles in arbitrary dimensions. We apply it for S > 1/2 spin-models with dipolar long-range interactions, a scenario arising in recent experiments with magnetic atoms. We show that the method can capture beyond mean-field effects, not only at short times, but it also can correctly reproduce long time quantum-thermalization dynamics. We benchmark the method with exact diagonalization in small systems, with perturbation theory for short times, and with analytical predictions made for models which feature quantum-thermalization at long times. We apply our method to study dynamics in large S > 1/2 spin-models and compute experimentally accessible observables such as Zeeman level populations, contrast of spin coherence, spin squeezing, and entanglement quantified by single-spin Renyi entropies. We reveal that large S systems can feature larger entanglement than corresponding S = 1/2 systems. Our analyses demonstrate that the GDTWA can be a powerful tool for modeling complex spin dynamics in regimes where other state-of-the art numerical methods fail.

Prethermalization in the transverse-field Ising chain with long-range interactions

Nonequilibrium dynamics in an isolated quantum spin chain with long-range Ising interactions that decay as () with the distance r is studied. It turns out that long-range interactions give rise to a big timescale separation, which causes prethermalization for all . This conclusion is deduced by comparing two important timescales relevant for relaxation dynamics; one is the relaxation time of local permutation operators, which are quasi-conserved quantities in this system, and the other is the timescale of the initial relaxation of local quantities due to the growth of quantum fluctuations. We also explore the entire nonequilibrium dynamics by using the discrete truncated Wigner approximation, which is consistent with the result mentioned above.

Quenches near criticality of the quantum Ising chain—power and limitations of the discrete truncated Wigner approximation

The semi-classical discrete truncated Wigner approximation has recently been proposed as a simulation method for spin-1/2 systems. While it appears to provide a powerful approach which shows promising results in higher dimensions and for systems with long-range interactions, its performance is still not well understood in general. Here we perform a systematic benchmarking on the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model and point to limitations of the approximation arising after sudden quenches into the quantum critical regime. Our procedure allows to identify the limitations of the semi-classical simulations and with that to determine the regimes and questions where quantum simulators can provide information which is inaccessible to semi-classics.

Exploring many-body localization and thermalization using semiclassical methods

The Discrete Truncated Wigner Approximation (DTWA) is a semi-classical phase space method useful for the exploration of Many-body quantum dynamics. In this work we investigate Many-Body Localization (MBL) and thermalization using DTWA and compare its performance to exact numerical solutions. By taking as a benchmark case a 1D random field Heisenberg spin chain with short range interactions, and by comparing to numerically exact techniques, we show that DTWA is able to reproduce dynamical signatures that characterize both the thermal and the MBL phases. It exhibits the best quantitative agreement at short times deep in each of the phases and larger mismatches close to the phase transition. The DTWA captures the logarithmic growth of entanglement in the MBL phase, even though a pure classical mean-field analysis would lead to no dynamics at all. Our results suggest the DTWA can become a useful method to investigate MBL and thermalization in experimentally relevant settings intractable with exact numerical techniques, such as systems with long range interactions and/or systems in higher dimensions.

Dynamics of correlations in two-dimensional quantum spin models with long-range interactions: a phase-space Monte-Carlo study

Interacting quantum spin models are remarkably useful for describing different types of physical, chemical, and biological systems. Significant understanding of their equilibrium properties has been achieved to date, especially for the case of spin models with short-range couplings. However, progress toward the development of a comparable understanding in long-range interacting models, in particular out-of-equilibrium, remains limited. In a recent work, we proposed a semiclassical numerical method to study spin models, the discrete truncated Wigner approximation (DTWA), and demonstrated its capability to correctly capture the dynamics of one- and two-point correlations in one-dimensional (1D) systems. Here we go one step forward and use the DTWA method to study the dynamics of correlations in two-dimensional (2D) systems with many spins and different types of long-range couplings, in regimes where other numerical methods are generally unreliable. We compute spatial and time-dependent correlations for spin-couplings that decay with distance as a power-law and determine the velocity at which correlations propagate through the system. Sharp changes in the behavior of those velocities are found as a function of the power-law decay exponent. Our predictions are relevant for a broad range of systems including solid state materials, atom–photon systems and ultracold gases of polar molecules, trapped ions, Rydberg, and magnetic atoms. We validate the DTWA predictions for small 2D systems and 1D systems, but ultimately, in the spirt of quantum simulation, experiments will be needed to confirm our predictions for large 2D systems.