Fifty years after Anderson’s resonating valence-bond proposal, the spin-1/2 triangular-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet (TLHAF) remains the ultimate platform to explore highly entangled quantum spin states in proximity to magnetic order. Yb-based delafossites are ideal candidate TLHAF materials, which allow experimental access to the full range of applied in-plane magnetic fields. We perform a systematic neutron scattering study of CsYbSe 2 , first proving the Heisenberg character of the interactions and quantifying the second-neighbor coupling. We then measure the complex evolution of the excitation spectrum, finding extensive continuum features near the 120°-ordered state, throughout the 1/3-magnetization plateau and beyond this up to saturation. We perform cylinder matrix-product-state (MPS) calculations to obtain an unbiased numerical benchmark for the TLHAF and spectacular agreement with the experimental spectra. The measured and calculated longitudinal spectral functions reflect the role of multi-magnon bound and scattering states. These results provide valuable insight into unconventional field-induced spin excitations in frustrated quantum materials.

We provide evidence that the spectrum of the local effective Hamiltonian and the transfer operator in infinite-system matrix product state simulations are identical up to a global rescaling factor, i.e.~the speed of light of the system, when the underlying system is described by a 1+1 dimensional CFT. We provide arguments for this correspondence based on a path integral point of view. This observation turns out to yield very precise estimates for the speed of light in practice, confirming exact results to high precision where available, but also allowing us to finally determine the speed of light of the non-integrable, critical $SU(2)$ Heisenberg chains with half-integer spin $S>1/2$ with unprecedented accuracy. We also show that the same technology applied to doped Hubbard ladders provides highly accurate velocities for a range of dopings. Combined with measurements of compressibilities we present new results for the Luttinger liquid parameter in the Luther-Emery regime of doped Hubbard ladders, outperforming earlier approaches based on the fitting of real-space correlation functions.

The hunt for exotic quantum phase transitions described by emergent fractionalized degrees of freedom coupled to gauge fields requires a precise determination of the fixed point structure from the field theoretical side, and an extreme sensitivity to weak first-order transitions from the numerical side. Addressing the latter, we revive the classic definition of the order parameter in the limit of a vanishing external field at the transition. We demonstrate that this widely understood, yet so far unused approach provides a diagnostic test for first-order versus continuous behavior that is distinctly more sensitive than current methods. We first apply it to the family of Q Q -state Potts models, where the nature of the transition is continuous for Q≤4 Q≤4 and turns (weakly) first order for Q>4 Q>4 , using an infinite system matrix product state implementation. We then employ this new approach to address the unsettled question of deconfined quantum criticality in the S=1/2 S=1/2 Néel to valence bond solid transition in two dimensions, focusing on the square lattice J J - Q Q model. Our quantum Monte Carlo simulations reveal that both order parameters remain finite at the transition, directly confirming a first-order scenario with wide reaching implications in condensed matter and quantum field theory.

Quantum simulation using synthetic systems is a promising route to solve outstanding quantum many-body problems in regimes where other approaches, including numerical ones, fail1. Many platforms are being developed towards this goal, in particular based on trapped ions2-4, superconducting circuits5-7, neutral atoms8-11 or molecules12,13. All of these platforms face two key challenges: scaling up the ensemble size while retaining high-quality control over the parameters, and validating the outputs for these large systems. Here we use programmable arrays of individual atoms trapped in optical tweezers, with interactions controlled by laser excitation to Rydberg states11, to implement an iconic many-body problem-the antiferromagnetic two-dimensional transverse-field Ising model. We push this platform to a regime with up to 196 atoms manipulated with high fidelity and probe the antiferromagnetic order by dynamically tuning the parameters of the Hamiltonian. We illustrate the versatility of our platform by exploring various system sizes on two qualitatively different geometries-square and triangular arrays. We obtain good agreement with numerical calculations up to a computationally feasible size (approximately 100 particles). This work demonstrates that our platform can be readily used to address open questions in many-body physics.