Observation of Quantum Thermalization Restricted to Hilbert Space Fragments and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mi>k</m

Quantum thermalization occurs in a broad class of systems from elementary particles to complex materials. Out-of-equilibrium quantum systems have long been understood to either thermalize or retain memory of their initial states, but not both. Here, we achieve the first coexistence of thermalization and memory in a quantum system, where we use both Rydberg blockade and facilitation in an atom array to engineer a fragmentation of the Hilbert space into exponentially many disjointed subspaces. We find that the kinetically constrained system yields quantum many-body scars arising from the <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:msub><a:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</a:mi><a:mrow><a:mn>2</a:mn><a:mi>k</a:mi></a:mrow></a:msub></a:math> class of initial states, which generalizes beyond the <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><d:msub><d:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</d:mi><d:mn>2</d:mn></d:msub></d:math> scars previously reported in other quantum systems. When bringing multiple long-range interactions into resonance, we observe quantum thermalization restricted to Hilbert space fragments, where the thermalized system retains characteristics of the initial configuration. Intriguingly, states belonging to different subspaces do not thermalize with each other even when they have the same energy. Our work sheds light on a subtle aspect of quantum thermalization while experimentally resolving the long-standing tension between thermalization and memory. These results may be applied to control entanglement dynamics in quantum processors and quantum sensors.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review X
Published
2025-02-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.15.011035
Citations
19
Primary Topic
Quantum many-body systems
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
23.69

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article

Observation of Quantum Thermalization Restricted to Hilbert Space Fragments and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mi>k</m

Luheng Zhao, Weikun Tian, Mohammad Mujahid Aliyu, Prithvi Raj Datla et al.
19 citations
Physical Review X
Quantum many-body systems
23.69
article

Observation of Quantum Thermalization Restricted to Hilbert Space Fragments and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn><mml:mi>k</m

Luheng Zhao, Weikun Tian, Mohammad Mujahid Aliyu, Prithvi Raj Datla, Huanqian Loh
article en
19 citations

Abstract

Quantum thermalization occurs in a broad class of systems from elementary particles to complex materials. Out-of-equilibrium quantum systems have long been understood to either thermalize or retain memory of their initial states, but not both. Here, we achieve the first coexistence of thermalization and memory in a quantum system, where we use both Rydberg blockade and facilitation in an atom array to engineer a fragmentation of the Hilbert space into exponentially many disjointed subspaces. We find that the kinetically constrained system yields quantum many-body scars arising from the <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:msub><a:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</a:mi><a:mrow><a:mn>2</a:mn><a:mi>k</a:mi></a:mrow></a:msub></a:math> class of initial states, which generalizes beyond the <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><d:msub><d:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</d:mi><d:mn>2</d:mn></d:msub></d:math> scars previously reported in other quantum systems. When bringing multiple long-range interactions into resonance, we observe quantum thermalization restricted to Hilbert space fragments, where the thermalized system retains characteristics of the initial configuration. Intriguingly, states belonging to different subspaces do not thermalize with each other even when they have the same energy. Our work sheds light on a subtle aspect of quantum thermalization while experimentally resolving the long-standing tension between thermalization and memory. These results may be applied to control entanglement dynamics in quantum processors and quantum sensors.

Physical Review XVol. 15(1)
Centre for Quantum Technologies (SG), National University of Singapore (SG), Duke University (US)
National Research Foundation Singapore
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Quantum many-body systems
23.69
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