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We investigate the effects of a static impurity, modeled by a localized barrier, in a one-dimensional mesoscopic system comprised of strongly correlated repulsive SU($N$)-symmetric fermions. For a mesoscopic sized ring under the effect of an artificial gauge field, we analyze the particle density and the current flowing through the impurity at varying interaction strength, barrier height and number of components. We find a non-monotonic behaviour of the persistent current, due to the competition between the screening of the impurity, quantum fluctuations, and the phenomenon of fractionalization, a signature trait of SU($N$) fermionic matter-waves in mesoscopic ring potentials. This is also highlighted in the particle density at the impurity site. We show that the impurity opens a gap in the energy spectrum selectively, constrained by the total effective spin and interaction. Our findings hold significance for the fundamental understanding of the localized impurity problem and its potential applications for sensing and interferometry in quantum technology., Comment: 5 revtex pages, 3 figures

We explore the energy content of superpositions of current states. Specifically, we focus on the maximum energy that can be extracted from them through local unitary transformations. The figure of merit we employ is the local ergotropy. We perform a complete analysis in the whole range of the system's parameters. This way, we prove that superpositions of two current states in spatially closed spin networks are characterized by specific peaks in extractable energy, generally overcoming the ergotropy of each of the two separate current states characterized by a single winding number. The many-body state dynamics entails to ergotropy evolving in a controlled fashion. The implementation we suggest is based on a Rydberg-atom platform. Optimal transformations able to extract locally the maximum possible amount of energy are sorted out., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

A ring of capacitively-coupled transmons threaded by a synthetic magnetic field is studied as a realization of a strongly interacting bosonic system. The synthetic flux is imparted through a specific Floquet modulation scheme based on a suitable periodic sequence of Lorentzian pulses that are known as `Levitons'. Such scheme has the advantage to preserve the translation invariance of the system and to work at the qubits sweet spots. We employ this system to demonstrate the concept of fractional values of flux quanta. Although such fractionalization phenomenon was originally predicted for bright solitons in cold atoms, it may be in fact challenging to access with that platform. Here, we show how fractional flux quanta can be read-out in the absorption spectrum of a suitable 'scattering experiment' in which the qubit ring is driven by microwaves., Comment: Main: 5 pages + 3 figures, Sup. Mat: 9 pages + 6 figures

Quantum simulation of many-body quantum systems using Rydberg-atom platforms has become of extreme interest in the last years. The possibility to realize spin Hamiltonians and the accurate control at the single atom level paved the way for the study of quantum phases of matter and dynamics. Here, we propose a quantum optimal control protocol to engineer current states: quantum states characterized by Rydberg excitations propagating in a given spatially closed tweezer networks. Indeed, current states with different winding numbers can be generated on demand. Besides those ones with single winding number, superposition of quantum current states characterized by more winding numbers can be obtained. The single current states are eigenstates of the current operator that therefore can define an observable that remains persistent at any time. In particular, the features of the excitations dynamics reflects the nature of current states, a fact that in principle can be used to characterize the nature of the flow experimentally without the need of accessing high order correlators., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures

In this article, we provide perspectives for atomtronics circuits on quantum technology platforms beyond simple bosonic or fermionic cold atom matter-wave currents. Specifically, we consider (i) matter-wave schemes with multi-component quantum fluids; (ii) networks of Rydberg atoms that provide a radically new concept of atomtronics circuits in which the flow, rather than in terms of matter, occurs through excitations; (iii) hybrid matter-wave circuits - cavities systems that can be used to study atomtronic circuits beyond the standard solutions and provide new schemes for integrated matter-wave networks. We also sketch how driving these systems can open new pathways for atomtronics.

We study driven atomic Josephson junctions realized by coupling two two-dimensional atomic clouds with a tunneling barrier. By moving the barrier at a constant velocity, dc and ac Josephson regimes are characterized by a zero and nonzero atomic density difference across the junction, respectively. Here, we monitor the dynamics resulting in the system when, in addition to the above constant velocity protocol, the position of the barrier is periodically driven. We demonstrate that the time-averaged particle imbalance features a step-like behavior that is the analog of Shapiro steps observed in driven superconducting Josephson junctions. The underlying dynamics reveals an intriguing interplay of the vortex and phonon excitations, where Shapiro steps are induced via suppression of vortex growth. We study the system with a classical-field dynamics method, and benchmark our findings with a driven circuit dynamics., Comment: 7+4 pages, 4+5 figures; To be published in PRL

Superconducting circuits constitute a promising platform for future implementation of quantum processors and simulators. Arrays of capacitively coupled transmon qubits naturally implement the Bose-Hubbard model with attractive on-site interaction. The spectrum of such many-body systems is characterised by low-energy localised states defining the lattice analog of bright solitons. Here, we demonstrate that these bright solitons can be pinned in the system, and we find that a soliton moves while maintaining its shape. Its velocity obeys a scaling law in terms of the combined interaction and number of constituent bosons. In contrast, the source-to-drain transport of photons through the array occurs through extended states that have higher energy compared to the bright soliton. For weak coupling between the source/drain and the array, the populations of the source and drain oscillate in time, with the chain remaining nearly unpopulated at all times. Such a phenomenon is found to be parity dependent. Implications of our results for the actual experimental realisations are discussed.

We consider a gas of repulsive $N$-component fermions confined in a ring-shaped potential, subject to an effective magnetic field. For large repulsion strengths, we work out a Bethe ansatz scheme to compute the two-point correlation matrix and then the one-particle density matrix. Our results holds in the mesoscopic regime of finite but sufficiently large number of particles and system size that are not accessible by numerics. We access the momentum distribution of the system and analyse its specific dependence of interaction, magnetic field and number of components $N$. In the context of cold atoms, the exact computation of the correlation matrix to determine the interference patterns that are produced by releasing cold atoms from ring traps is carried out., Comment: 15 revtex pages, 6 figures

We analyze the two main physical observables related to the momenta of strongly correlated SU($N$) fermions in ring-shaped lattices pierced by an effective magnetic flux: homodyne (momentum distribution) and self-heterodyne interference patterns. We demonstrate how their analysis allows us to monitor the persistent current pattern. We find that both homodyne and self-heterodyne interference display a specific dependence on the structure of the Fermi distribution and particles' correlations. For homodyne protocols, the momentum distribution is affected by the particle statistics in two distinctive ways. The first effect is a purely statistical one: at zero interactions, the characteristic hole in the momentum distribution around the momentum $\mathbf{k}=0$ opens up once half of the SU($N$) Fermi sphere is displaced. The second effect originates from interaction: the fractionalization in the interacting system manifests itself by an additional `delay' in the flux for the occurrence of the hole, that now becomes a depression at $\mathbf{k}=0$. In the case of self-heterodyne interference patterns, we are not only able to monitor, but also observe the fractionalization. Indeed, the fractionalized angular momenta, due to level crossings in the system, are reflected in dislocations present in interferograms. Our analysis demonstrate how the study of the interference fringes grants us access to both number of particles and number of components of SU($N$) fermions., Comment: 35 revtex pages, 21 figures

Fermionic artificial matter realized with cold atoms grants access to an unprecedented degree of control on sophisticated many-body effects with an enhanced flexibility of the operating conditions. We consider three-component fermions with attractive interactions to study the formation of complex bound states whose nature goes beyond the standard fermion pairing occurring in quantum materials. Such systems display clear analogies with quark matter. Here, we address the nature of the bound states of a three-component fermionic system in a ring-shaped trap through the persistent current. In this way, we demonstrate that we can distinguish between color superfluid and trionic bound states. By analyzing finite temperature effects, we show how finite temperature can lead to the deconfinement of bound states. For weak interactions the deconfinement occurs because of scattering states. In this regime, the deconfinement depends on the trade-off between interactions and thermal fluctuations temperature. For strong interactions the features of the persistent current result from the properties of a suitable gas of bound states., Comment: 19 pages, 20 figures

We study a quantum many-body system of attracting bosons confined in a ring-shaped potential and interrupted by a weak link. With such architecture, the system defines atomtronic quantum interference devices harnessing quantum solitonic currents. We demonstrate that the system is characterized by the specific interplay between the interaction and the strength of the weak link. In particular, we find that, depending on the operating conditions, the current can be a universal function of the relative size between the strength of the impurity and interaction. The low lying many-body states are studied through a quench dynamical protocol that is the atomtronic counterpart of Rabi interferometry. With this approach, we demonstrate how our system defines a two level system of coupled solitonic currents. The current states are addressed through the analysis of the momentum distribution.