Perfect oscillatory dynamics from quantum many-body scars

ORAL

Abstract

The concept of quantum many-body scars -- atypical, nonergodic energy eigenstates of an otherwise ergodic many-body system -- was recently introduced to explain the surprising long-lived oscillations observed in an interacting, constrained spin chain following a quantum quench. Here, we provide numerical evidence that a suitable, quasi-local deformation of the system leads to a dramatic increase of the lifetime of the oscillations, even possibly allowing them to last for an indefinitely long time. We show that this seemingly perfect oscillatory dynamics can be understood via an emergent large SU(2)-spin undergoing precession, contained within a special subspace of the many-body Hilbert space, while the rest of the system remains ergodic. The presence of such dynamics severely constrains the structure of certain energy eigenstates in the thermodynamic limit. Furthermore, we introduce a toy model which captures the salient features of quantum many-body scarring.

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Presenters

  • Wen Wei Ho

    Harvard University, Harvard, Physics, Harvard University

Authors

  • Soonwon Choi

    University of California, Berkeley, UC Berkeley, Physics, University of California Berkeley, University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, Physics, University of California, Berkeley

  • Christopher J Turner

    School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds

  • Alexios Michailidis

    IST Austria

  • Wen Wei Ho

    Harvard University, Harvard, Physics, Harvard University

  • Hannes Pichler

    Physics, Harvard University

  • Xiaoliang Qi

    Physics, Stanford University, Stanford University

  • Dmitry Abanin

    University of Geneva, Physics, University of Geneva

  • Maksym Serbyn

    IST Austria, Institution of Science and Technology Austria

  • Zlatko Papic

    School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds

  • Mikhail Lukin

    Harvard University, Physics, Harvard University