Phase transition as compute: Rydberg vapor becomes a better computer near criticality
bravo_abad · x · 2026-08-25
Zongkai Liu and coauthors use an interacting Rydberg atomic vapour as a physical reservoir computer for time-series prediction, with a remarkably simple architecture:
- A time-dependent signal is encoded into the Rabi frequency of a laser driving the Rydberg atoms.
- Nonlinear many-body dynamics of the vapour transform the input into a much richer optical response—the expensive nonlinear computation is done by the physics itself.
- Only the final readout is trained, via plain linear regression.
The key result: near a non-equilibrium phase transition (the bistable regime), collective interactions strongly amplify the response—the physical system becomes a better computer near criticality.
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