Group Seminar at MPQ: Thermalization dynamics on a Bose-Hubbard quantum simulator: from a lattice gauge theory to many-body scars

Guoxian Su, Jian Wei Pan’s group, Heidelberg
Group Seminar MPQ lecture hall and zoom
Tuesday, October 18th, 09:00 am (MEZ)

Abstract:

I will present the experimental investigations of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics with ultracold atoms in optical lattices. In the first part, we realize a U(1) lattice gauge theory in a staggered optical superlattice. We investigate the emergent thermal equilibrium by quenching from various gauge-invariant initial states. We demonstrate the effective loss of information as different initial states with the same conserved quantity approach a common steady-state well described by the thermal ensemble. In a second experiment, we study the slowed thermalization dynamics with many-body scars in the quantum simulator. We realize many-body scarring by emulating the PXP model with the tilted optical lattice, and further demonstrate scarring in the presence of detuning potential. We measure the slowed entanglement growth and periodic revivals in quantum fidelity by performing Hong-Ou-Mandel interference in the optical superlattice. Our work establishes new realms for studying non-equilibrium phenomena in complex quantum systems and paves the way for exploring novel quantum phases of matter on synthetic quantum matter devices.