Time-crystalline eigenstate order on a quantum processor
Abstract
Quantum many-body systems display rich phase structure in their low-temperature equilibrium states1. However, much of nature is not in thermal equilibrium. Remarkably, it was recently predicted that out-of-equilibrium systems can exhibit novel dynamical phases2–8that may otherwise be forbidden by equilibrium thermodynamics, a paradigmatic example being the discrete time crystal (DTC)7,9–15. Concretely, dynamical phases can be defined in periodically driven many-body-localized (MBL) systems via the concept of eigenstate order7,16,17. In eigenstate-ordered MBL phases, the entire many-body spectrum exhibits quantum correlations and long-range order, with characteristic signatures in late-time dynamics from all initial states. It is, however, challenging to experimentally distinguish such stable phases from transient phenomena, or from regimes in which the dynamics of a few select states can mask typical behaviour. Here we implement tunable controlled-phase (CPHASE) gates on an array of superconducting qubits to experimentally observe an MBL-DTC and demonstrate its characteristic spatiotemporal response for generic initial states7,9,10. Our work employs a time-reversal protocol to quantify the impact of external decoherence, and leverages quantum typicality to circumvent the exponential cost of densely sampling the eigenspectrum. Furthermore, we locate the phase transition out of the DTC with an experimental finite-size analysis. These results establish a scalable approach to studying non-equilibrium phases of matter on quantum processors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41586-021-04257-w
Entities
People
- A. Megrant
- A. Zalcman
- Aditya Locharla
- Alan L. Ho
- Alan R. Derk
- Alex Opremcak
- Alexander Bilmes
- Alexander N. Korotkov
- Alexandre Bourassa
- Alexei Kitaev
- Ami Greene
- Andre Petukhov
- Andreas Bengtsson
- Andrew Dunsworth
- Ashley Huff
- Austin G. Fowler
- Balint Pato
- Benjamin Chiaro
- Benjamin Villalonga
- Bob B. Buckley
- Brian Burkett
- Brooks Foxen
- Catherine Erickson
- Charles Neill
- Chris Quintana
- Cody Jones
- Craig Gidney
- D. Landhuis
- Daniel Eppens
- Daniel Sank
- David A. Buell
- Doug Strain
- Dripto Debroy
- Dvir Kafri
- Edward Farhi
- Eric Ostby
- Erik Lucero
- Evan Jeffrey
- Fedor Kostritsa
- Frank Arute
- Hartmut Neven
- J. C. Bardin
- J. Kelly
- Jarrod R McClean
- Jeremy Hilton
- Joao Basso
- Jonathan Gross
- Joonho Lee
- Juan Atalaya
- Juhwan Yoo
- Justin Iveland
- Kenny Lee
- Kevin C Miao
- Kevin J Satzinger
- Kostyantyn Kechedzhi
- Kunal Arya
- L. B. Ioffe
- Leon Brill
- M. McEwen
- Marco Szalay
- Marissa Giustina
- Masoud Mohseni
- Matteo Ippoliti
- Matthew D. Trevithick
- Matthew Neeley
- Matthew P Harrigan
- Michael Broughton
- Michael Newman
- Murphy Yuezhen Niu
- Nicholas Bushnell
- Nicholas C. Rubin
- Ofer Naaman
- Orion Martin
- P. Yeh
- Paul V. Klimov
- Pavel Laptev
- Pedram Roushan
- Roberto Collins
- Roderich Moessner
- Ryan Babbush
- S. Demura
- S. L. Sondhi
- Sabrina Hong
- Sean Harrington
- Seon Kim
- Sergei V. Isakov
- Sergio Boixo
- Shirin Montazeri
- Tanuj Khattar
- Theodore White
- Thomas E. O’brien
- Trent Huang
- Trevor Mccourt
- Vadim Smelyanskiy
- Vedika Khemani
- Vladimir Shvarts
- W. Mruczkiewicz
- William Courtney
- William J. Huggins
- X. Mi
- Yu Chen
- Yuan Su
- Z. Jamie Yao
- Zhang Jiang
- Zijun Chen
Organizations
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- United States Department of Defense