Emergent Floquet prethermalization signatures in out-of-time ordered correlations

POSTER

Abstract

How a many-body quantum system thermalizes --or fails to do so-- under its own interaction is a fundamental yet elusive concept. Here we demonstrate nuclear magnetic resonance observation of the emergence of prethermalization by measuring out-of-time ordered correlations. We exploit Hamiltonian engineering techniques to tune the strength of spin-spin interactions and of a transverse magnetic field in a spin chain system, as well as to invert the Hamiltonian sign to reveal out-of-time ordered correlations. At large fields, we observe an emergent conserved quantity due to prethermalization, which can be revealed by an early saturation of correlations. Our experiment not only demonstrates a new protocol to measure out-of-time ordered correlations, but also provides new insights in the study of quantum thermaldynamics.

Presenters

  • Pai Peng

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT

Authors

  • Pai Peng

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT

  • Xuan Wei

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, MIT, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

  • Oles Shtanko

    Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Iman Marvian

    Departments of Physics & Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University

  • Chandrasekhar Ramanathan

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College

  • Seth Lloyd

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Masachussetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Paola Cappellaro

    Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Research Laboratory of Electronics and Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT