Phase transition of light in circuit-QED lattices coupled to nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.

We propose a hybrid quantum architecture for engineering a photonic Mott insulator-superfluid phase transition in a two-dimensional (2D) square lattice of a superconducting transmission line resonator (TLR) coupled to a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center encircled by a persistent current qubit. The localization-delocalization transition results from the interplay between the on-site repulsion and the nonlocal tunneling. The phase boundary in the case of photon hopping with real-valued and complex-valued amplitudes can be obtained using the mean-field approach. Also, the quantum jump technique is employed to describe the phase diagram when the dissipative effects are considered. The unique feature of our architecture is the good tunability of effective on-site repulsion and photon-hopping rate, and the local statistical property of TLRs which can be analyzed readily using present microwave techniques. Our work opens new perspectives in quantum simulation of condensed-matter and many-body physics using a hybrid spin circuit-QED system. The experimental challenges are realizable using currently available technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]