Exact calculation of phonon effects on spin squeezing

Theoretical models of spins coupled to bosons provide a simple setting for studying a broad range of important phenomena in many-body physics, from virtually mediated interactions to decoherence and thermalization. In many atomic, molecular, and optical systems, such models also underlie the most successful attempts to engineer strong, long-ranged interactions for the purpose of entanglement generation. Especially when the coupling between the spins and bosons is strong---such that it cannot be treated perturbatively---the properties of such models are extremely challenging to calculate theoretically. Here, exact analytical expressions for nonequilibrium spin-spin correlation functions are derived for a specific model of spins coupled to bosons. The spatial structure of the coupling between spins and bosons is completely arbitrary, and thus the solution can be applied to systems in any number of dimensions. The explicit and nonperturbative inclusion of the bosons enables the study of entanglement generation (in the form of spin squeezing) even when the bosons are driven strongly and near-resonantly, and thus provides a quantitative view of the breakdown of adiabatic elimination that inevitably occurs as one pushes towards the fastest entanglement generation possible. The solution also helps elucidate the effect of finite temperature on spin squeezing. The model considered is relevant to a variety of atomic, molecular, and optical systems, such as atoms in cavities or trapped ions. As an explicit example, the results are used to quantify phonon effects in trapped ion quantum simulators, which are expected to become increasingly important as these experiments push towards larger numbers of ions.