Dynamical Hamiltonian engineering of 2D rectangular lattices in a one-dimensional ion chain

Controlling the interaction graph between spins or qubits in a quantum simulator allows user-controlled tailoring of native interactions to achieve a target Hamiltonian. Engineering long-ranged phonon-mediated spin–spin interactions in a trapped ion quantum simulator offers such a possibility. Trapped ions, a leading candidate for quantum simulation, are most readily trapped in a linear 1D chain, limiting their utility for readily simulating higher dimensional spin models. In this work, we introduce a hybrid method of analog-digital simulation for simulating 2D spin models which allows for the dynamic changing of interactions to achieve a new graph using a linear 1D chain. We focus this numerical work on engineering 2D rectangular nearest-neighbor spin lattices, demonstrating that the required control parameters scale linearly with ion number. This hybrid approach offers compelling possibilities for the use of 1D chains in the study of Hamiltonian quenches, dynamical phase transitions, and quantum transport in 2D and 3D.