Simulating open quantum systems with giant atoms

Abstract Open quantum many-body systems are of both fundamental and applicational interest. However, it remains an open challenge to simulate and solve such systems, both with state-of-the-art classical methods and with quantum-simulation protocols. To overcome this challenge, we introduce a simulator for open quantum many-body systems based on giant atoms, i.e. atoms (possibly artificial), that couple to a waveguide at multiple points, which can be wavelengths apart. We first show that a simulator consisting of two giant atoms can simulate the dynamics of two coupled qubits, where one qubit is subject to different drive amplitudes and dissipation rates. This simulation enables characterizing the quantum Zeno crossover in this model. We further show that by equipping the simulator with post-selection, it becomes possible to simulate the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian dynamics of the system and thereby characterize the transition from oscillatory to non-oscillatory dynamics due to varying dissipation rates. We demonstrate and analyze the robustness of these simulation results against noise affecting the giant atoms. Finally, we discuss and show how giant-atom-based simulators can be scaled up for digital–analog simulation of large open quantum many-body systems, e.g. generic dissipative spin models.