title: Loops and Strings in a Superconducting Lattice Gauge Simulator.
abstract: We propose an architecture for an analog quantum simulator of electromagnetism in 2+1 dimensions, based on an array of superconducting fluxonium devices. The encoding is in the integer (spin-1) representation of the quantum link model formulation of compact U(1) lattice gauge theory. We show how to engineer Gauss' law via an ancilla mediated gadget construction, and how to tune between the strongly coupled and intermediately coupled regimes. The witnesses to the existence of the predicted confining phase of the model are provided by nonlocal order parameters from Wilson loops and disorder parameters from 't Hooft strings. We show how to construct such operators in this model and how to measure them nondestructively via dispersive coupling of the fluxonium islands to a microwave cavity mode. Numerical evidence is found for the existence of the confined phase in the ground state of the simulation Hamiltonian on a ladder geometry.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Brennen
authors.affiliation: icFRC, IPCMS (UMR 7504) and ISIS (UMR 7006), Universite de Strasbourg and CNRS,67000 Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pupillo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Apartado 644, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain.|IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Maria Diaz de Haro 3, E-48013 Bilbao, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rico
authors.affiliation: Center for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Stace
authors.affiliation: icFRC, IPCMS (UMR 7504) and ISIS (UMR 7006), Universite de Strasbourg and CNRS,67000 Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vodola