  Many-body systems of quantum interacting particles in which time-reversal
symmetry is broken give rise to a variety of rich collective behaviors, and are
therefore a major target of research in modern physics. Quantum simulators can
potentially be used to explore and understand such systems, which are often
beyond the computational reach of classical simulation. Of these, platforms
with universal quantum control can experimentally access a wide range of
physical properties. However, simultaneously achieving strong programmable
interactions, strong time-reversal symmetry breaking, and high fidelity quantum
control in a scalable manner is challenging. Here we realized quantum
simulations of interacting, time-reversal broken quantum systems in a universal
trapped-ion quantum processor. Using a scalable scheme that was recently
proposed we implemented time-reversal breaking synthetic gauge fields, shown
for the first time in a trapped ion chain, along with unique coupling
geometries, potentially extendable to simulation of multi dimensional systems.
Our high fidelity single-site resolution in control and measurement, along with
highly programmable interactions, allow us to perform full state tomography of
a ground state showcasing persistent current, and to observe dynamics of a
time-reversal broken system with nontrivial interactions. Our results open a
path towards simulation of time-reversal broken many-body systems with a wide
range of features and coupling geometries.
