2025/06/26 by Joseph Vovrosh, Julius de Hond, Vovrosh, Joseph +7 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.21299
The Ising model serves as a canonical platform for exploring emergent symmetry in quantum critical systems. The critical point of the 1D Ising chain is described by a conformal Ising field theory, which remains integrable in the presence of a magnetic perturbation, leading to massive particles associated with the exceptional Lie algebra E8. Weakly coupling two Ising chains into a ladder breaks this integrability and is predicted to confine the elementary excitations of each chain into a richer spectrum of bound states organized by a D(1)8 symmetry. Experimental signatures of E8 excitations have arguably been observed in scattering studies of the spin chain material CoNb2O6, but direct evidence of confinement driven by inter-chain coupling has remained elusive. Here, we probe these emergent symmetries in a Rydberg atom quantum processing unit, leveraging its tunable geometry to realize both chain and ladder configurations. We identify mass spectra consistent with E8 at the single-chain critical point and, in the weakly coupled ladder, report the first signatures of confinement of Ising excitations into the bound-state spectrum predicted by D(1)8 symmetry. Our results demonstrate the power of Rydberg platforms for investigating symmetry emergence in quantum many-body systems and provide a direct window into the interplay of confinement, geometry, and criticality.