Trapped-ion quantum simulator: experimental application to nonlinear interferometers.

TLDR: An experimentally realized set of operations on a single trapped ion is sufficient to simulate a wide class of Hamiltonians of a spin-1/2 particle in an external potential and the use of nonlinear beam splitters enhances this sensitivity compared to the standard quantum limit imposed by a linear beam splitter.

Abstract: We show how an experimentally realized set of operations on a single trapped ion is sufficient to simulate a wide class of Hamiltonians of a spin-$1/2$ particle in an external potential. This system is also able to simulate other physical dynamics. As a demonstration, we simulate the action of two $n\mathrm{t}\mathrm{h}$ order nonlinear optical beam splitters comprising an interferometer sensitive to phase shift in one of the interferometer beam paths. The sensitivity in determining these phase shifts increases linearly with $n$, and the simulation demonstrates that the use of nonlinear beam splitters ($n=2,3$) enhances this sensitivity compared to the standard quantum limit imposed by a linear beam splitter ($n=1$).