Kinetic Slush in Dissipative Rydberg Arrays

Abstract

We investigate the nonequilibrium dynamics of a kinetic slush state realized via facilitated excitations in a two-dimensional dissipative Rydberg atom array. Utilizing kinetic Monte Carlo simulations in the strong dephasing regime, we show that tuning the laser detuning to compensate for nearest-neighbor interactions enables facilitated dynamics, while residual next-nearest-neighbor interactions induce kinetic frustration. This competition gives rise to an emergent slush phase characterized by pronounced dynamical heterogeneity and the coexistence of liquid- and solid-like configurations. By probing its nonequilibrium real-time evolution, we uncover a dynamical crossover from isotropic spreading to one-dimensional constrained growth, which can be continuously tuned by the frustration strength. Within this crossover regime, the slush dynamics generate fractal cluster geometries and generalized Ornstein-Zernike spatial correlations. Finite-size scaling analysis supports the system's proximity to criticality. Our findings establish driven-dissipative Rydberg systems as a highly controllable platform for engineering complex nonequilibrium soft-matter phenomena.