Many-body-localized discrete time crystal with a programmable spin-based quantum simulator

The discrete time crystal (DTC) is a nonequilibrium phase of matter that spontaneously breaks time-translation symmetry. Disorder-induced many-body localization can stabilize the DTC phase by breaking ergodicity and preventing thermalization. Here, we observe the hallmark signatures of the many-body...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2021-12, Vol.374 (6574), p.1474-1478
Main Authors: Randall, J, Bradley, C E, van der Gronden, F V, Galicia, A, Abobeih, M H, Markham, M, Twitchen, D J, Machado, F, Yao, N Y, Taminiau, T H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon 13
Crystals
Diamonds
Driving conditions
Dynamic control
Localization
Many body problem
Oscillations
Quantum phenomena
Quantum theory
Simulation
Thermalization (energy absorption)
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Summary:The discrete time crystal (DTC) is a nonequilibrium phase of matter that spontaneously breaks time-translation symmetry. Disorder-induced many-body localization can stabilize the DTC phase by breaking ergodicity and preventing thermalization. Here, we observe the hallmark signatures of the many-body–localized DTC using a quantum simulation platform based on individually controllable carbon-13 nuclear spins in diamond. We demonstrate long-lived period-doubled oscillations and confirm that they are robust for generic initial states, thus showing the characteristic time-crystalline order across the many-body spectrum. Our results are consistent with the realization of an out-of-equilibrium Floquet phase of matter and introduce a programmable quantum simulator based on solid-state spins for exploring many-body physics.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.abk0603