Supersolidity and Simplex Phases in Spin-1 Rydberg Atom Arrays

Abstract

Neutral atoms become strongly interacting when their electrons are excited to loosely bound Rydberg states. We investigate the strongly correlated quantum phases of matter that emerge in two-dimensional atom arrays where three Rydberg levels are used to encode an effective spin-1 degree of freedom. Dipolar exchange between such spin-1 Rydberg atoms naturally yields two distinct models: (i) a two-species hardcore boson model, and (ii) upon tuning near a F\"orster resonance, a dipolar spin-1 XY model. Through extensive, large-scale infinite density matrix renormalization group calculations, we provide a broad roadmap predicting the quantum phases that emerge from these models on a variety of lattice geometries: square, triangular, kagome, and ruby. We identify a wealth of correlated states, including lattice supersolids and simplex phases, all of which can be naturally realized in near-term experiments.