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We report the observation and control of ultrafast non-equilibrium many-body electron dynamics in Rydberg-excited spatially-ordered ultracold atoms created from a three-dimensional unity-filling atomic Mott insulator. By implementing time-domain Ramsey interferometry with attosecond precision in our Rydberg atomic system, we observe picosecond-scale ultrafast many-body dynamics that is essentially governed by the emergence and evolution of many-body correlations between long-range interacting atoms in an optical lattice. We analyze our observations with different theoretical approaches and find that quantum fluctuations have to be included beyond semi-classical descriptions to describe the observed dynamics. Our Rydberg lattice platform combined with an ultrafast approach, which is robust against environmental noises, opens the door for simulating strongly-correlated electron dynamics by long-range van der Waals interaction and resonant dipole-dipole interaction to the charge-overlapping regime in synthetic ultracold atomic crystals.

We use the resonant dipole-dipole interaction between Rydberg atoms and a periodic external microwave field to engineer XXZ spin Hamiltonians with tunable anisotropies. The atoms are placed in 1D and 2D arrays of optical tweezers, allowing us to study iconic situations in spin physics, such as the implementation of the Heisenberg model in square arrays, and the study of spin transport in 1D. We first benchmark the Hamiltonian engineering for two atoms, and then demonstrate the freezing of the magnetization on an initially magnetized 2D array. Finally, we explore the dynamics of 1D domain wall systems with both periodic and open boundary conditions. We systematically compare our data with numerical simulations and assess the residual limitations of the technique as well as routes for improvements. The geometrical versatility of the platform, combined with the flexibility of the simulated Hamiltonians, opens exciting prospects in the field of quantum simulation, quantum information processing and quantum sensing., Comment: 10 pages, 4 main figures, 2 supplementary figures

We present a depletion imaging technique to map out the spatial and temporal dependency of the density distribution of an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms. Locally resolved absorption depletion, observed through differential ground state absorption imaging of a $^{87}\text{Rb}$ cloud in presence and absence of pre-excited Rydberg atoms, reveals their projected two-dimensional distribution. By employing a closed two-level optical transition uncoupled from the Rydberg state, the highly excited atoms are preserved during imaging. We measure the excitation dynamics of the $\vert48S\rangle$ state of $^{87}\text{Rb}$, observing a saturation of the two-dimensional Rydberg density. Such outcome can be explained by the Rydberg blockade effect which prevents resonant excitation of close-by Rydberg atoms due to strong dipolar interactions. By combining the superatom description, where atoms within a blockade radius are represented as collective excitations, with a Monte Carlo sampling, we can quantitatively model the observed excitation dynamics and infer the full three-dimensional distribution of Rydberg atoms, that can serve as a starting point for quantum simulation of many-body dynamics involving Rydberg spin systems., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

Understanding the dynamics of strongly interacting disordered quantum systems is one of the most challenging problems in modern science, due to features such as the breakdown of thermalization and the emergence of glassy phases of matter. We report on the observation of anomalous relaxation dynamics in an isolated XXZ quantum spin system realized by an ultracold gas of atoms initially prepared in a superposition of two-different Rydberg states. The total magnetization is found to exhibit sub-exponential relaxation analogous to classical glassy dynamics, but in the quantum case this relaxation originates from the build-up of non-classical correlations. In both experiment and semi-classical simulations, we find the evolution towards a randomized state is independent of the strength of disorder up to a critical value. This hints towards a unifying description of relaxation dynamics in disordered isolated quantum systems, analogous to the generalization of statistical mechanics to out-of-equilibrium scenarios in classical spin glasses.

A patient-specific fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model of a phase-contrast magnetic resonance angiography (PC-MRA) imaged arteriovenous fistula is presented. The numerical model is developed and simulated using a commercial multiphysics simulation package where a semi-implicit FSI coupling scheme combines a finite volume method blood flow model and a finite element method vessel wall model. A pulsatile mass-flow boundary condition is prescribed at the artery inlet of the model, and a three-element Windkessel model at the artery and vein outlets. The FSI model is freely available for analysis and extension. This work shows the effectiveness of combining a number of stabilisation techniques to simultaneously overcome the added-mass effect and optimise the efficiency of the overall model. The PC-MRA data, fluid model, and FSI model results show almost identical flow features in the fistula; this applies in particular to a flow recirculation region in the vein that could potentially lead to fistula failure., Comment: 21 pages, 6 png figures, 11 pdf figures, uses myarX.cls

We investigate a fundamental property of device independent security in quantum cryptography by characterizing probability distributions which are necessarily independent of the measurement results of any eavesdropper. We show that probability distributions that are secure in this sense are exactly the extremal quantum probability distributions. This allows us to give a characterization of security in algebraic terms. We apply the method to common examples for two-party as well as multi-party setups and present a scheme for verifying security of probability distributions with two parties, two measurement settings, and two outcomes., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

We propose a quantum key distribution protocol based on a quantum retrodiction protocol, known as the Mean King problem. The protocol uses a two way quantum channel. We show security against coherent attacks in a transmission error free scenario, even if Eve is allowed to attack both transmissions. This establishes a connection between retrodiction and key distribution., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

We discuss the role of classical control in the context of reversible quantum cellular automata. Employing the structure theorem for quantum cellular automata, we give a general construction scheme to turn an arbitrary cellular automaton with external classical control into an autonomous one, thereby proving the computational equivalence of these two models. We use this technique to construct a universally programmable cellular automaton on a one-dimensional lattice with single cell dimension 12., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, minor changes in introduction, fixed typos, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters