Quantum simulation of two-dimensional $\mathrm{U(1)}$ gauge theory in Rydberg atom arrays

Zheng Zhou, Zheng Yan, Changle Liu, Yan Chen, Xue-Feng Zhang

Published 2022-12-21Version 1

Simulating $\mathrm{U(1)}$ quantum gauge theories with spatial dimension greater than one is of great physical significance yet has not been achieved experimentally. Here we propose a simple realization of $\mathrm{U(1)}$ gauge theory on triangular lattice Rydberg atom arrays. Within experimentally accessible range, we find that the effective model well simulates various aspects of the $\mathrm{U(1)}$ gauge theory, such as emergence of topological sectors, incommensurability, and the deconfined Rokhsar-Kivelson point. Our proposal is easy to implement experimentally and exhibits pronounced quantum dynamics compared with previous proposals realizing $\mathrm{U(1)}$ and $\mathbb Z_2$ gauge theories.