Observing emergent hydrodynamics in a long-range quantum magnet
Abstract
Identifying universal properties of non-equilibrium quantum states is a major challenge in modern physics. A fascinating prediction is that classical hydrodynamics emerges universally in the evolution of any interacting quantum system. Here, we experimentally probe the quantum dynamics of 51 individually controlled ions, realizing a long-range interacting spin chain. By measuring space-time resolved correlation functions in an infinite temperature state, we observe a whole family of hydrodynamic universality classes, ranging from normal diffusion to anomalous superdiffusion, that are described by L\'evy flights. We extract the transport coefficients of the hydrodynamic theory, reflecting the microscopic properties of the system. Our observations demonstrate the potential for engineered quantum systems to provide key insights into universal properties of non-equilibrium states of quantum matter.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2107.00033,
title = {Observing emergent hydrodynamics in a long-range quantum magnet},
author = {M. K. Joshi and F. Kranzl and A. Schuckert and I. Lovas and C. Maier and R. Blatt and M. Knap and C. F. Roos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.00033},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Note added: During the completion of this manuscript, we became aware of related work demonstrating superdiffusive transport in an integrable Heisenberg chain with nearest-neighbor superexchange interactions (D. Wei et. al, Quantum gas microscopy of Kardar-Parisi-Zhang superdiffusion, to appear in the same arXiv posting)