First-order quantum phase transition in the two-qubit squeezed Rabi model

Abstract

We study the ground state of the two-qubit squeezed Rabi model. Two special transformations are found to diagonalize the system Hamiltonian when each qubit’s frequency is close to the field frequency, where both the squeezing and counterrotating-wave interactions are removed, leading to an effective integrable Hamiltonian. The analytical ground state is determined and matches with numerical solutions well for a range of squeezing strengths and qubit-field detunings in the ultrastrong-coupling regime. We demonstrate that the ground state exhibits a first-order quantum phase transition at a phase boundary linearly induced by the squeezed light. We characterize the two-qubit negativity analytically and find that its two-qubit entanglement increases with the increasing squeezing strength nonlinearly. The average photon numbers of the field mode and variances of position and momentum quadratures are also analyzed and discovered to have a nonlinear relation with the squeezing strength. Finally, we discuss the experimental scheme and realization possibility of the predicted results.