Dissipative Rydberg gases are an outstanding platform for the investigation of many-body open systems.Despite the wealth of existing studies,the non-equilibrium dynamics of dissipative Rydberg gases has rarely been ex...Dissipative Rydberg gases are an outstanding platform for the investigation of many-body open systems.Despite the wealth of existing studies,the non-equilibrium dynamics of dissipative Rydberg gases has rarely been examined or harnessed through the lens of non-Hermitian physics,which is intrinsic to open systems.Here we report the experimental observation of chiral switching between many-body steady states in a dissipative thermal Rydberg vapor,which is underlain by an exceptional structure in the Liouvillian eigenspectrum of the system.Similar to typical chiral state transfer in non-Hermitian systems,as the parameters are adiabatically varied around a closed contour,depending on the chirality of the parameter modulation,the Rydberg vapor can change between two collective steady states with distinct Rydberg excitations and optical transmissions.Adopting a mean-field description,we reveal that both the existence of the bistable steady states and chiral dynamics derive from the Liouvillian exceptional structure,where two exceptional lines merge at a higher-order exceptional point.Such a non-Hermitian perspective of the dissipative Rydberg gas not only provides a new paradigm for chiral mode switching through many-body parameters,as we demonstrate experimentally,but also paves the way for devising novel applications based on the unique features of non-Hermitian physics.展开更多
基金supported by the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology(2024ZD0300900)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(12134014,61905234,11974335,12374337,and 12374479)+3 种基金the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences,CAS(QYZDYSSW-SLHO03)University of Science and Technology of China Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative(YD2030002007)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(WK2470000035)the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology(2021ZD0301200).
文摘Dissipative Rydberg gases are an outstanding platform for the investigation of many-body open systems.Despite the wealth of existing studies,the non-equilibrium dynamics of dissipative Rydberg gases has rarely been examined or harnessed through the lens of non-Hermitian physics,which is intrinsic to open systems.Here we report the experimental observation of chiral switching between many-body steady states in a dissipative thermal Rydberg vapor,which is underlain by an exceptional structure in the Liouvillian eigenspectrum of the system.Similar to typical chiral state transfer in non-Hermitian systems,as the parameters are adiabatically varied around a closed contour,depending on the chirality of the parameter modulation,the Rydberg vapor can change between two collective steady states with distinct Rydberg excitations and optical transmissions.Adopting a mean-field description,we reveal that both the existence of the bistable steady states and chiral dynamics derive from the Liouvillian exceptional structure,where two exceptional lines merge at a higher-order exceptional point.Such a non-Hermitian perspective of the dissipative Rydberg gas not only provides a new paradigm for chiral mode switching through many-body parameters,as we demonstrate experimentally,but also paves the way for devising novel applications based on the unique features of non-Hermitian physics.
