Development of Yb tweezer arrays for quantum simulation and communication

Neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezer arrays are a powerful platform for quantum simulation. With long coherence times and tunable Rydberg interactions, flexible connectivity can be engineered on atomic qubits. The level structure of ¹⁷¹Yb atoms in particular has a metastable ³P₀ state that can be excited to Rydberg states via a single-photon transition, which enables high-fidelity qubit operations. We aim to perform simulations of quark-level effective field theories for quantum chromodynamics. We report progress toward simulating (1+1)D Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model in 1D atom arrays, as well as ideas on observing the E8 symmetry in the Ising model. Further, we present an outlook on extending our system to two-dimensions, where chiral symmetry breaking features can be explored. Finally, we describe work toward achieving remote entanglement using frequency-converted visible-photons sent across an optical-fiber network.