Public Research Seminar by Advanced Materials (AMAT) Thrust, HKUST(GZ) - Rydberg gadget in quantum optimization and quantum simulation 

Rydberg atom arrays have advanced significantly in simulating large and complex systems, but their application remains constrained by the specific class of problems they can naturally encode. In this talk, I will present two applications of Rydberg gadgets—clusters of atoms designed to impose flexible local constraints—in quantum optimization and quantum simulation.
In the first part, I will review the role of Rydberg gadgets in quantum optimization, emphasizing how quantum effects can cause exponential slowdowns even in simple problems. To address this challenge, I propose methods to mitigate these quantum bottlenecks.
In the second part, I extend the concept of Rydberg gadgets beyond quantum optimization to explore their use in studying many-body phases of quantum matter. This extension enhances the versatility of Rydberg atom-based quantum simulators, enabling the implementation of complex constrained models and the preparation of exotic states, such as topological spin liquids.
 
Ref:
[1] Lisa  Bombieri, Zhongda Zeng et al. "Quantum adiabatic optimization with Rydberg arrays: localization phenomena and encoding strategies." arXiv:2411.04645 (2024).
[2] Zhongda Zeng, Giuliano Giudici, and Hannes Pichler. "Quantum dimer models with Rydberg gadgets." arXiv:2402.10651 (2024).