arXiv:2209.09297 · Physical Review Letters

Controlling Local Thermalization Dynamics in a Floquet-Engineered Dipolar Ensemble

Leigh S. Martin, Hengyun Zhou, Nathaniel Leitao, Nishad Maskara, Oksana Makarova, Haoyang Gao, Qian-Ze Zhu, Mincheol Park, Matthew Tyler, Hongkun Park, Soonwon Choi, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published May 25, 2023• 22 citations

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Abstract

Understanding the microscopic mechanisms of thermalization in closed quantum systems is among the key challenges in modern quantum many-body physics. We demonstrate a method to probe local thermalization in a large-scale many-body system by exploiting its inherent disorder and use this to uncover the thermalization mechanisms in a three-dimensional, dipolar-interacting spin system with tunable interactions. Utilizing advanced Hamiltonian engineering techniques to explore a range of spin Hamiltonians, we observe a striking change in the characteristic shape and timescale of local correlation decay as we vary the engineered exchange anisotropy. We show that these observations originate from the system's intrinsic many-body dynamics and reveal the signatures of conservation laws within localized clusters of spins, which do not readily manifest using global probes. Our method provides an exquisite lens into the tunable nature of local thermalization dynamics and enables detailed studies of scrambling, thermalization, and hydrodynamics in strongly interacting quantum systems.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.130.210403

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