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