Experimental observation of conformal field theory spectra

Abstract

Conformal field theories (CFTs) feature prominently in high-energy physics, statistical mechanics, and condensed matter. For example, CFTs govern emergent universal properties of systems tuned to quantum phase transitions, including their entanglement, correlations, and low-energy excitation spectra. Much of the rich structure predicted by CFTs nevertheless remains unobserved in experiment. Here we directly observe the energy excitation spectra of emergent CFTs at quantum phase transitions -- recovering universal energy ratios characteristic of the underlying field theories. Specifically, we develop and implement a modulation technique to resolve a Rydberg chain's finite-size spectra, variably tuned to quantum phase transitions described by either Ising or tricritical Ising CFTs. We also employ local control to distinguish parities of excitations under reflection and, in the tricritical Ising chain, to induce transitions between distinct CFT spectra associated with changing boundary conditions. By utilizing a variant of the modulation technique, we furthermore study the dynamical structure factor of the critical system, which is closely related to the correlation of an underlying Ising conformal field. Our work not only probes the emergence of CFT features in a quantum simulator, but also provides a technique for diagnosing a priori unknown universality classes in future experiments.