We investigate the onset and mechanism of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF) in a chain of strongly interacting Rydberg atoms subjected to local dephasing. It is found that the emergence of multiple long-lived metastable states is fundamentally tied to the HSF of the driven-dephasing Rydberg atom system. We demonstrate that the dephasing PXP model, the effective constrained model for strongly blockaded Rydberg atoms, captures the manifesting HSF and supports multiple degenerate zero modes. These modes form disconnected block-diagonal subspaces of maximally mixed states, which consist of many-body spin states sharing the same symmetry. A key result is the identification of the underlying symmetry in the HSF, where the conserved quantities in each subspace are defined by the consecutive double excitation addressing operator. Moreover, we show explicitly that the number of fragmented Hilbert spaces grows exponentially with the chain length, following a modified Fibonacci sequence. Our work provides insights into many-body dynamics under dynamical constraints and opens avenues for controlling and manipulating HSF in Rydberg atom systems.

We investigate dynamics of a linear chain of Rydberg atoms driven by a constrained four-body interaction, where two neighboring atoms are excited simultaneously from the electronic ground state |0⟩ to Rydberg state |1⟩ only when their closest neighbors are in |0⟩ state. By employing an ansatz for the many-body ground state, the low-energy Hamiltonian is given by a tridiagonal form. The many-body ground state energy, which scales linearly with the chain length L, is obtained analytically in the thermodynamic limit and agrees with the one of the exact diagonalization. Our model supports quantum many-body scar eigenstates that are nearly equally spaced energetically. The scar states overlap strongly with the basis state |0⟩=|0⋯ 0⟩. We show that the overlap distribution is tilted by the state-dependent four-body interaction. This leads to non-ergodic dynamics, evidenced by the revival of the initial state. The four-body constrained model can be realized with Rydberg atoms in a Peierls array with alternating bond lengths, where atoms on the shorter and longer bonds experience Rydberg blockade and antiblockade, respectively. Our study provides a pathway to explore constrained non-ergodic dynamics with four-body interactions by combining the Rydberg blockade and antiblockade.

The quantum Mpemba effect (ME) in Markovian systems is conventionally explained by a smaller overlap between the initial state and the slowest decay mode (SDM). Such state, initially farther away from equilibrium or steady state, relaxes faster than closer ones, resulting to a crossing of their trajectories. This picture, by neglecting the transient dynamics, holds in the long-time limit. Here we experimentally observe multiple trajectory crossings (multi-ME) in the relaxation dynamics of a trapped ion. Such novel dynamics takes place in a unusual scenario where the initial state instead has a larger overlap with the SDM. We develop a theoretical framework based on relaxation speed to understand the multi-ME. We show that the initial relaxation speed is governed by the fastest decay mode, which together with the SDM overlap gives a phase diagram that reveals both the occurrence and the types of quantum ME observed in our experiment. Our study goes beyond the simple picture based on the long-time limit, tracks continuously the quantum ME dynamics, and establishes a comprehensive framework to describe the transient quantum relaxation.

Periodically driven Floquet quantum systems hold great promise for engineering exotic quantum phases and matter, but are often limited by rapid thermalization. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a square-wave-modulated Floquet engineering protocol to steer and study the thermalization dynamics in one-dimensional Rydberg atom arrays. We identify a reciprocal Floquet thermalization mechanism, which is triggered when the combination of laser detuning and Rydberg atom interactions inversely matches the Floquet period. The level statistics show narrow peaks when the reciprocal condition is met, while thermalization is suppressed between two adjacent peaks. We extract signatures of thermalization and its suppression from the stroboscopic evolution of the atomic population. Critically, thermalization occurs in a disorder-free regime, with rapid equilibration achieved within the Rydberg lifetime and experimentally accessible initial states. Our study establishes a robust framework for exploring thermalization-to-localization transitions and designing effective Hamiltonians, and highlights the unique potential of the Rydberg atom array setting for quantum simulations.

We study spin-phonon coupled dynamics in the vicinity of a sloped conical intersection created by laser coupling the electronic (spin) and vibrational degrees of freedom of a pair of trapped Rydberg ions. We show that the shape of the potential energy surfaces can be engineered and controlled by exploiting the sideband transitions of the crystal vibration and dipole-dipole interactions between Rydberg ions in the Lamb-Dicke regime. Using the sideband transition, we realize a sloped conical intersection whose cone axis is only tilted along one spatial axis. When the phonon wave packet is located in the minimum of the lower potential surface, the spin and phonon dynamics are largely frozen owing to the geometric phase effect. When starting from the upper potential surface, the electronic and phonon states tunnel to the lower potential surface, leading to a partial revival of the initial state. In contrast, the dynamics drastically change when the initial wave packets are away from the conical intersection. The initial state is revived, and it is almost entirely irrelevant whether it is from the lower or upper potential surface. Complete Rabi oscillations of the adiabatic states are found when the wave packet is initialized on the upper potential surface. The dynamics occur on the microsecond and nanometer scales, implying that Rydberg ions provide a platform for simulating nonadiabatic processes in the vicinity of a sloped conical intersection.

State-dependent conformational changes play a central role in molecular dynamics, yet they are often difficult to observe or simulate due to their complexity and ultrafast nature. One alternative approach is to emulate such phenomena using quantum simulations with cold, trapped ions. In their electronic ground state, these ions form long-lived Wigner crystals. When excited to high-lying electronic Rydberg states, the ions experience a modified trapping potential, resulting in a strong coupling between their electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom. In an ion crystal, this vibronic coupling creates electronic state-dependent potential energy surfaces that can support distinct crystal structures-closely resembling the conformational changes of molecules driven by electronic excitations. Here, we present the first experimental observation of this effect, by laser coupling a single ion at the center of a three-ion crystal to a Rydberg state. By tuning the system close to a structural phase transition, the excitation induces a state-dependent conformational change, transforming the Wigner crystal from a linear to a zigzag configuration. This structural change leads to a strong hybridization between vibrational and electronic states, producing a clear spectroscopic signature in the Rydberg excitation. Our findings mark the first experimental step toward using Rydberg ions to create and study artificial molecular systems.

Stochastic switching is a central phenomenon in dissipative many-body systems, offering a key probe of metastability across classical and quantum regimes. Here, we unravel the connection between switching dynamics and quantum metastability through the lens of spectral decomposition, quantum-jump simulations and the large deviation principles. By establishing a direct correspondence between classical fixed points and quantum metastable states, we distinguish trajectory-level, noise-induced metastability from spectrum-level, deterministic metastability in a Markovian open quantum system with bistability. The Liouvillian gap, the steady-state occupation ratio and the observed switching rates of the metastable states all exhibit exponential scaling with system size, giving rise to a quantum analogue of the Arrhenius law, with the inverse system size serving as an effective temperature. These results provide a unified picture of quantum bistability and clarify the relaxation processes of strongly interacting, dissipative quantum systems far from the thermodynamic limit.

Ultra-sensitive microwave sensing is widely demanded in various fields, ranging from cosmology to microwave quantum technology. Quantum magnetometers based on inorganic solid-state spin systems are promising for this because of their stability and biocompatibility, but the sensitivity is currently limited to a few pT/ Hz. Here, by utilizing an enhanced readout scheme with state-of-the-art solid-state maser technology, we develop a robust microwave quantum magnetometer based on spins in organic molecules at ambient conditions. Owing to the maser amplification, the sensitivity of the magnetometer reaches 6.1(2) fT/ Hz, which is three orders of magnitude better than that of the inorganic solid-state quantum magnetometers. Heterodyne detection without additional local oscillators improves the bandwidth of the sensors and allows determination of the field frequency. The scheme can be extended to other solid-state spin systems without complicated control pulses and thus enables applications, such as electron spin resonance spectroscopy, dark matter searches, and astronomical observations.

Rydberg molecule, formed by one or more Rydberg atoms, exhibits remarkable properties, including an exceptionally large spatial extent, rich rovibrational level structures, permanent electric dipole moments, and a pronounced sensitivity to external fields. Based on the underlying binding mechanisms, Rydberg molecules can be divided into three categories, the ground-Rydberg molecule that is bound via a low-energy electron-atom scattering interaction between ground atom and Rydberg electron, the Rydberg-Rydberg molecule that is bound via a long-range electrostatic interaction between Rydberg atoms, and the ion-Rydberg molecule that is bound via single- or multi-polar interactions between Rydberg atom and ion. This review focuses on recent theoretical and experimental advances in diatomic Rydberg molecules, covering their formation and binding mechanisms, potential energy curves, experimental observations, and spectroscopic properties, with the aim of providing a comprehensive overview of the current state and future prospects of this rapidly developing field.

We propose and systematically analyze a practical scheme for implementing a one-dimensional non-Hermitian (NH) Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model using individually addressable Rydberg atom arrays. Our setup consists of an atomic chain with three-atom unit cells, in which a synthetic gauge field is generated by applying multicolor laser fields. By engineering fast dissipative channels for one auxiliary atom in each unit cell, adiabatic elimination effectively gives rise to a NH skin effect. We examine how fluctuations in the experimental parameters influence both the skin effect and the topological invariant in real space and find that both features remain highly robust. This work establishes a versatile, controllable, and programmable open-system quantum simulator with neutral atoms, providing a clear route for exploring rich NH topological phenomena.

We investigate the dynamics of antiferromagnetic dimers within a Rydberg atom chain in the regime where laser detuning compensates for nearest-neighbor (NN) interactions. Using an effective PXQ model, we demonstrate that the associated Hilbert space decomposes into disconnected, dimer-conserving subspaces. The classification of these subspaces is provided, and the computational basis states spanning them are identified. Through a combination of analytical mapping and numerical simulations, we compare the dynamics of the PXQ model with those of the full Rydberg atom chain. The deviations are attributed to two factors, laser-induced leakage from the constrained Hilbert subspace and the influence of long-range interactions beyond the NN limit. Our results indicate that subspace leakage can be mitigated by increasing the NN interaction strength. While this simultaneously amplifies the effects of long-range interactions, the conservation of the dimer number remains. Our study opens up possibilities for exploring the dynamics of antiferromagnetic dimers using the Rydberg atom quantum simulator.

Abstract Multi-qubit quantum gates offer an effcient pathway to reducing circuit depth in quantum information processing. Here, we propose two multipartite controlled-NOT gate schemes in a hybrid platform composed of polar molecules and Rydberg atoms. By encoding the control qubits in the long-lived ground states of polar molecules and harnessing the strong dipole-dipole interactions of Rydberg atoms, our approach establishes a gate mechanism that enables both strong and controllable coupling while effectively suppressing decoherence. The scheme can be naturally generalized to larger systems, providing a scalable route toward hybrid quantum computation.

We demonstrate that a nonlinear spin-orbit interaction (SOI) emerges in cold Rydberg atomic gases, where the orbital characteristics (spatial structure) of light fields become coupled to their polarization (spin). This SOI originates from the giant, spatially inhomogeneous nonlinear optical response arising from the strong, long-range interactions between Rydberg atoms. By extending the theoretical framework beyond the conventional paraxial approximation, we derive a light propagation equation that rigorously incorporates such inhomogeneous nonlinearity. Our study reveals that the SOI is driven by the gradient of the inhomogeneous nonlinear response and therefore vanishes in linear or homogeneous media. When two orthogonal light fields co-propagate, the SOI generates novel nonlinear energy transfer and pronounced structural deformation, which are not captured without considering the SOI or within the paraxial approximation. Furthermore, owing to its direct dependence on the gradient of the nonlocal nonlinearity, the SOI is inherently mode-dependent. As a consequence, the structural deformation becomes particularly significant for light fields with odd parity symmetry. Our investigation establishes novel pathways for exploring the nonlinear SOI and examining inhomogeneous nonlinear optical responses beyond the paraxial approximation in cold Rydberg atomic gases.

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) enables coherent light-matter storage, forming the basis of photonic quantum memories that are essential for scalable quantum networks and distributed quantum computing. However, accelerating the storage process violates the adiabatic condition, resulting in the excitation of the lossy intermediate state and a reduction in writing efficiency. We propose and numerically investigate a high-speed, high-fidelity quantum storage scheme by incorporating a shortcut-to-adiabaticity technique based on counterdiabatic (CD) driving. By introducing a precisely engineered auxiliary field into a conventional EIT system, our protocol significantly shortens the writing time beyond the conventional adiabatic limit while effectively suppressing the transient population of the lossy intermediate state. Furthermore, our scheme demonstrates strong flexibility in pulse design, remaining effective across different temporal profiles of both the control and signal fields. It also exhibits robustness against imperfections in the CD drive. Even with imperfect single-photon writing and nonideal Rydberg blockade, the scheme retains clear advantages, maintaining high storage performance and overcoming the intrinsic speed-fidelity tradeoff of traditional EIT protocols. These features pave the way for fast and robust quantum devices suitable for high-throughput quantum repeaters and advanced quantum information processing.

We study dynamical phase transitions in the generalized dissipative Dicke model in an array of trapped Rydberg ions, where their density-density interactions compete with the collective spin-phonon coupling, laser driving and dissipation. This setting offers a versatile approach to study equilibrium as well as non-equilibrium many-body phenomena, as parameters, such as the Ising interaction, laser-ion and spin-phonon coupling can be tuned. Through analyzing the mean-field phase diagram, we find a variety of distinct phases and the emergence of a tricritical point that are sensitively dependent of the interaction between Rydberg ions. We then study the quantum dynamics for a finite system size and characterize parameter dependent dynamics using the spin average, entropy, and Loschmidt echo. Distinctive signatures of the dynamical phases, such as slow relaxation and metastability, arise near the phase transition. This analysis predicts rich quantum dynamics of the finite system that link to the non-equilibrium mean-field phases. Our study widens the exploration of collective and non-equilibrium phases in Dicke models, and reveals that the Rydberg ion interaction drastically affects the phase diagram and dynamics.

Trapped ions are one of the most promising quantum-information-processing platforms, yet conventional entangling gates mediated by collective motion remain slow and difficult to scale. Exciting trapped ions to high-lying electronic Rydberg states provides a promising route to overcome these limitations by enabling strong, long-range dipole-dipole interactions that support much faster multi-qubit operations. Here, we introduce the first scheme for implementing a native controlled-controlled-Z gate with microwave-dressed Rydberg ions by optimizing a single-pulse protocol that accounts for the finite Rydberg-state lifetime. Under realistic conditions, the resulting gate achieves fidelities above 97% with execution times of about 2 mu s at cryogenic temperatures, making it more than 8 mu s faster than standard decompositions into one- and two-qubit gates. To explore the potential of trapped Rydberg ions for fault-tolerant (FT) quantum error correction (QEC), and to illustrate the utility of three-qubit Rydberg-ion gates in this context, we develop and analyze a proposal for FT, measurement-free QEC using the nine-qubit Bacon-Shor code. Our simulations confirm that QEC can be performed in a fully FT manner on a linear Rydberg-ion chain despite its limited qubit connectivity. These results establish native multi-qubit Rydberg-ion gates as a valuable resource for fast, high-fidelity quantum computing and highlight their potential for FT QEC.

Rydberg atoms, characterized by their giant polarizability and strong long-range interactions, provide an ideal platform for exploring optical nonlinearities. By coupling light to ensembles of Rydberg atoms, one can map the strong and nonlocal interactions between Rydberg atoms and light fields. A particularly important scheme for realizing such nonlinearity is electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). This article presents a review of the research progress in nonlinear optics based on Rydberg-EIT systems, particularly nonlinear light propagation in Rydberg atomic gases. We first introduce the fundamental properties of Rydberg atoms and the physical mechanism of EIT-enhanced nonlinearity, emphasizing how the Rydberg blockade effect endows the system with a giant nonlocal Kerr nonlinearity. Subsequently, we discuss some typical nonlinear optical phenomena in such a system with focusing and defocusing nonlocal nonlinearities. In the focusing regime, we discuss spatial solitons, vortex solitons, soliton cloning, soliton molecules, optical bullets, and self-induced transparency solitons. Other topics are also discussed. In the defocusing regime, we analyze pattern formation and shock wave dynamics. Finally, we provide an outlook on the future development of this field toward quantum control, hybrid-system integration, and novel functional devices.

The contact process is a paradigmatic example of nonequilibrium dynamics, with broad applications ranging from chemistry to sociology. Its quantum counterpart, the quantum contact process (QCP), extends the classical model to include coherent processes. Despite sustained interest, the nature of the transition in the one-dimensional (1D) QCP remains debatable. Here, combining Liouvillian spectral analysis, the tensor jump method, exact quantum jump Monte Carlo, and truncated Wigner simulations, we show that 1D QCP undergoes a continuous absorbing-state phase transition, with critical exponents distinct from the classical case. We further find Liouvillian gap closes well below the critical point, highlighting that spectral gap analysis alone cannot distinguish a phase transition from metastability in the QCP. Crucially, the 1D QCP is weakly entangled, yet even this weak entanglement is indispensable for capturing the correct critical behavior, whereas semiclassical methods artificially stabilize the active state and predict a spurious first-order transition. Our work establishes the quantum origin of the phase transition in the 1D QCP and underscores the essential role of entanglement in dissipative quantum many-body systems.

We propose high-fidelity controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates in a hybrid system of polar molecules and Rydberg atoms based on the unconventional Rydberg pumping mechanism. By combining the rich internal structure of polar molecules with the strong dipole-dipole interactions of Rydberg atoms, we realize both two-to-one and one-to-two gate configurations. Numerical simulations show that the gate performance is robust against spontaneous emission from Rydberg states. The approach naturally extends to larger systems, as demonstrated by four-qubit implementations achieving three-to-one and one-to-three CNOT gates with fidelities exceeding 99%. These results highlight hybrid molecule-Rydberg atom architectures as a promising platform for scalable quantum information processing.