Physics & Astronomy Quantum Nano Seminar - Dr. Xuan Wei, MIT

Title: "Exploring Localization and Out-of-Time Ordered Correlations in Nuclear Spin Chains"

April 13, 2017
4 pm - 5 pm
Location
Wilder 202
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854

Abstract: Measuring the spread of information is a complex but central task for characterizing out-of-equilibrium many-body dynamics. We present a novel correlation metric capable of detecting information spread in a many-spin system at high temperature. We experimentally demonstrate the use of this metric to probe information scrambling in a solid-state spin system using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We observe a slow growth of correlations consistent with the phenomenology of many-body localization (MBL). In addition, we experimentally measure in our system the commutator square, akin to out-of-order correlations, and observe a similar slow growth in the MBL regime. Furthermore, we observe a fast growth of the commutator square near a critical point corresponding to a symmetry breaking phase transition.

Location
Wilder 202
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854