Quantum simulation of material-specific Hubbard models with alkaline-earth atoms
Abstract
A long-term goal of quantum simulation is to faithfully reproduce the low-energy Hamiltonians of correlated quantum materials, establishing a direct connection between solid-state experiment, electronic-structure theory, and programmable many-body systems. Here, we introduce an integrated quantum-simulation architecture based on fermionic alkaline-earth atoms that enables programmable control over the key ingredients of multi-orbital material Hamiltonians. Long-lived clock states encode synthetic orbitals, their differential polarizabilities generate orbital-selective tunneling, and contact interactions provide multi-orbital Hubbard and Hund couplings. Spatially structured coherent driving on the ultra-narrow clock transition further realizes symmetry-selective inter-orbital hybridization, while the clock detuning independently controls orbital energy offsets. In this way, the spatial symmetries of solid-state orbitals can be encoded directly into the effective Hamiltonian, even though the atoms themselves remain in conventional s-wave Wannier orbitals of the lowest optical-lattice bands. We demonstrate the resulting integrated control using the four-band low-energy Hamiltonian of the bilayer nickelate La3Ni2O7 as a demanding benchmark. Self-consistent calculations show that the microscopic parameters obtained from first-principles modeling can be reproduced within a single experimentally accessible lattice configuration and independently programmed over substantial parameter ranges. Our results establish a general route for translating material-derived multi-orbital Hamiltonians into programmable ultracold-atom quantum simulators.
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BibTeX
@misc{schlomer2026quantum,
title = {{Quantum simulation of material-specific Hubbard models with alkaline-earth atoms}},
author = {Henning Schlömer and Reuben R. W. Wang and Bo Xing and Susanne F. Yelin and H. R. Sadeghpour},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.10713},
eprint = {2610.10713},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10713},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Quantum simulation of material-specific Hubbard models with alkaline-earth atoms
AU - Henning Schlömer
AU - Reuben R. W. Wang
AU - Bo Xing
AU - Susanne F. Yelin
AU - H. R. Sadeghpour
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.10713
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.10713
AB - A long-term goal of quantum simulation is to faithfully reproduce the low-energy Hamiltonians of correlated quantum materials, establishing a direct connection between solid-state experiment, electronic-structure theory, and programmable many-body systems. Here, we introduce an integrated quantum-simulation architecture based on fermionic alkaline-earth atoms that enables programmable control over the key ingredients of multi-orbital material Hamiltonians. Long-lived clock states encode synthetic orbitals, their differential polarizabilities generate orbital-selective tunneling, and contact interactions provide multi-orbital Hubbard and Hund couplings. Spatially structured coherent driving on the ultra-narrow clock transition further realizes symmetry-selective inter-orbital hybridization, while the clock detuning independently controls orbital energy offsets. In this way, the spatial symmetries of solid-state orbitals can be encoded directly into the effective Hamiltonian, even though the atoms themselves remain in conventional s-wave Wannier orbitals of the lowest optical-lattice bands. We demonstrate the resulting integrated control using the four-band low-energy Hamiltonian of the bilayer nickelate La_3Ni_2O_7 as a demanding benchmark. Self-consistent calculations show that the microscopic parameters obtained from first-principles modeling can be reproduced within a single experimentally accessible lattice configuration and independently programmed over substantial parameter ranges. Our results establish a general route for translating material-derived multi-orbital Hamiltonians into programmable ultracold-atom quantum simulators.
ER -