Related papers: Non-thermal eigenstates and slow relaxation in qua…
It is believed that thermalization in closed systems of interacting particles can occur only when the eigenstates are fully delocalized and chaotic in the preferential (unperturbed) basis of the total Hamiltonian. Here we demonstrate that…
Understanding relaxation processes is an important unsolved problem in many areas of physics. A key challenge in studying such non-equilibrium dynamics is the scarcity of experimental tools for characterizing their complex transient states.…
We solve the Schroedinger equation for an interacting spin-chain locally coupled to a quantum environment with a specific degeneracy structure. The reduced dynamics of the whole spin-chain as well as of single spins is analyzed. We show,…
A profound quest of statistical mechanics is the origin of irreversibility - the arrow of time. New stimulants have been provided, thanks to unprecedented degree of control reached in experiments with isolated quantum systems and rapid…
The decoupling of spin and density dynamics is a remarkable feature of quantum one-dimensional many-body systems. In a few-body regime, however, little is known about this phenomenon. To address this problem, we study the time evolution of…
It was recently shown that entanglement in quantum systems being in a non-equilibrium state can appear at much higher temperatures than in an equilibrium state. However, any system is subject to the natural relaxation process establishing…
Thermalization of isolated quantum systems is a long-standing fundamental problem where different mechanisms are proposed over time. We contribute to this discussion by classifying the diverse quench dynamical behaviours of spin-1…
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…
Phase transitions are fundamental in nature. A small parameter change near a critical point leads to a qualitative change in system properties. Across a regular phase transition, the system remains in thermal equilibrium and, therefore,…
The Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) represents a cornerstone in the theoretical understanding of the emergence of thermal behavior in closed quantum systems. The ETH asserts that expectation values of simple observables in energy…
There exist zero-temperature states in quantum many-body systems that are fully factorized, thereby possessing vanishing entanglement, and hence being of no use as resource in quantum information processing tasks. Such states can become…
Statistical mechanics is founded on the assumption that all accessible configurations of a system are equally likely. This requires dynamics that explore all states over time, known as ergodic dynamics. In isolated quantum systems, however,…
We find non-monotonic equilibrium energy distributions, qualitatively different from the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein forms, in strongly-interacting many-body chaotic systems. The effect emerges in systems with finite energy spectra,…
We investigate the non-equilibrium thermal quantum discord and entanglement of a three-spin chain whose two end spins are respectively coupled to two thermal reservoirs at different temperatures. In the three-spin chain, besides the XX-type…
Constraints in the dynamics of quantum many-body systems can dramatically alter transport properties and relaxation timescales even in the absence of static disorder. Here, we report on the observation of such constrained dynamics arising…
We investigate the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in integrable models, focusing on the spin-1/2 isotropic Heisenberg (XXX) chain. We provide numerical evidence that ETH holds for typical eigenstates (weak ETH scenario).…
We investigate the non-equilibrium states of an interacting multi-component quantum system when only an extensive subsystem is quantum-quenched or driven from the ground state. As a concrete example, we consider a system where two XXZ spin…
We study the many-body localization transition in one-dimensional Hubbard chains using exact diagonalization and quantum chaos indicators. We also study dynamics in the delocalized (ergodic) and localized phases and discuss thermalization…
We introduce a one-dimensional (1D) extended quantum breakdown model comprising a fermionic and a spin degree of freedom per site, and featuring a spatially asymmetric breakdown-type interaction between the fermions and spins. We…
An exact stochastic model for the thermalisation of quantum states is proposed. The model has various physically appealing properties. The dynamics are characterised by an underlying Schrodinger evolution, together with a nonlinear term…