String-breaking dynamics in a quantum simulator
11 affiliations
- 1Duke Quantum Center, Departments of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- 2Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, NIST and University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- 3Joint Quantum Institute, NIST and University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- 4Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- 5The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
- 6Department of Physics and Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- 7School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- 8Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Innsbruck, Austria
- 9Department of Physics and Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- 10National Quantum Laboratory (QLab), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- 11School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Abstract
The spontaneous formation of particle pairs is one of the most intriguing phenomena in nature. A canonical example is when the potential energy between two elementary particles increases with their separation, as if the particles were confined to one another by a tense string. When the separation exceeds a critical value, new particle pairs can form, which causes the string to break. String-breaking dynamics in quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, play a fundamental role in high-energy particle collisions and the evolution of matter in the early universe. Simulating the evolution of strings and the formation of composite particles, or hadrons, is a grand challenge of modern physics. Quantum simulators are well suited to study dynamical processes. They are, therefore, expected to provide an edge over conventional methods based on classical computing. However, the experimental capabilities required to simulate the string-breaking phenomenon have not yet been demonstrated, even for simpler prototypical models of the strong force. In this work, we probe, for the first time on a quantum simulator, the spatiotemporally-resolved dynamics of string breaking in a (1+1)-dimensional Z2 lattice gauge theory, a theory that also exhibits confinement of charges. We employ a fully programmable trapped-ion quantum simulator, and emulate the effects of external static charges and strings via site-dependent control of magnetic fields, using a dual array of tightly focused laser beams targeting individual ions. First, we study the effect of confinement on the evolution of isolated charges. We find that these charges freely spread in the absence of string tension, but exhibit localized coherent oscillations as the string tension is increased. Then, we observe and characterize the breaking dynamics of a string initially stretched between two static charges, following an abrupt increase of the string tension. We find that charge pairs appear near the string edges and then spread out into the bulk, thereby identifying a route to dynamical string breaking that is distinct from the conventional Schwinger mechanism. This work, therefore, demonstrates that analog quantum simulators have achieved the control needed to uncover features of string-breaking dynamics, which may ultimately be relevant to nuclear and high-energy physics.
Related
- Quantum Simulations of Two-Dimensional Non-Abelian Adjoint String Breaking
- Quantum Simulation of Hadronization: From String Breaking to Event Generation
- Measured dynamics of an XXZ quantum simulator in a highly symmetrical double-ringed geometry
- Oscillator-Qubit Primitives for a Molecular Quantum Dynamics Simulator
- String Order in Quench Dynamics as a Probe of Quantum Phase Transitions
BibTeX
@article{de2026stringbreaking,
title = {{String-breaking dynamics in a quantum simulator}},
author = {Arinjoy De and Alessio Lerose and De Luo and Federica Maria Surace and Alexander Schuckert and Elizabeth R. Bennewitz and Brayden Ware and William Morong and K. S. Collins and Zohreh Davoudi and Alexey Vyacheslavovich Gorshkov and Or Katz and Christopher R. Monroe},
journal = {Nature Physics},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s41567-026-03422-0},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03422-0},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - String-breaking dynamics in a quantum simulator
AU - Arinjoy De
AU - Alessio Lerose
AU - De Luo
AU - Federica Maria Surace
AU - Alexander Schuckert
AU - Elizabeth R. Bennewitz
AU - Brayden Ware
AU - William Morong
AU - K. S. Collins
AU - Zohreh Davoudi
AU - Alexey Vyacheslavovich Gorshkov
AU - Or Katz
AU - Christopher R. Monroe
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - Nature Physics
DO - 10.1038/s41567-026-03422-0
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03422-0
AB - The spontaneous formation of particle pairs is one of the most intriguing phenomena in nature. A canonical example is when the potential energy between two elementary particles increases with their separation, as if the particles were confined to one another by a tense string. When the separation exceeds a critical value, new particle pairs can form, which causes the string to break. String-breaking dynamics in quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, play a fundamental role in high-energy particle collisions and the evolution of matter in the early universe. Simulating the evolution of strings and the formation of composite particles, or hadrons, is a grand challenge of modern physics. Quantum simulators are well suited to study dynamical processes. They are, therefore, expected to provide an edge over conventional methods based on classical computing. However, the experimental capabilities required to simulate the string-breaking phenomenon have not yet been demonstrated, even for simpler prototypical models of the strong force. In this work, we probe, for the first time on a quantum simulator, the spatiotemporally-resolved dynamics of string breaking in a (1+1)-dimensional Z2 lattice gauge theory, a theory that also exhibits confinement of charges. We employ a fully programmable trapped-ion quantum simulator, and emulate the effects of external static charges and strings via site-dependent control of magnetic fields, using a dual array of tightly focused laser beams targeting individual ions. First, we study the effect of confinement on the evolution of isolated charges. We find that these charges freely spread in the absence of string tension, but exhibit localized coherent oscillations as the string tension is increased. Then, we observe and characterize the breaking dynamics of a string initially stretched between two static charges, following an abrupt increase of the string tension. We find that charge pairs appear near the string edges and then spread out into the bulk, thereby identifying a route to dynamical string breaking that is distinct from the conventional Schwinger mechanism. This work, therefore, demonstrates that analog quantum simulators have achieved the control needed to uncover features of string-breaking dynamics, which may ultimately be relevant to nuclear and high-energy physics.
SN - 1745-2473
SN - 1745-2481
ER -