Kavli Affiliate: Natalia Chepiga
| First 5 Authors: Natalia Chepiga, Frédéric Mila, , ,
| Summary:
Chains of Rydberg atoms have emerged as an amazing playground to study
quantum physics in 1D. Playing with inter-atomic distances and laser detuning,
one can in particular explore the commensurate-incommensurate transition out of
charge-density waves through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and the possible
presence of a chiral transition with dynamical exponent $z>1$. Here we address
this problem theoretically with effective blockade models where the
short-distance repulsions are replaced by a constraint of no double occupancy.
For the period-4 phase, we show there is an Ashkin-Teller transition point with
exponent $nu=0.78$ surrounded by a direct chiral transition with a dynamical
exponent $z=1.14$ and a Kibble-Zurek exponent $mu=0.4$. For Rydberg atoms with
a van der Waals potential, we suggest that the experimental value $mu=0.25$ is
due to a chiral transition with $zsimeq 1.9$ and $nusimeq 0.47$ surrounding
an Ashkin-Teller transition close to the 4-state Potts universality.
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