Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Materials Science

Tuning between continuous time crystals and many-body scars in long-range xyz spin chains
In a study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers report that there are regimes where continuous time crystals coexist with quantum many-body scars.
Schematic summary of the dynamical phase diagram as a function of model anisotropy parameters J and the interaction range α. Within slowly heating (prethermal) regime (yellow), there are two regimes that preserve coherence for a long time far from equilibrium: continuous time crystals (blue) and quantum many-body scars (red).

Scientific Achievement

Rapid relaxation can be avoided even if a quantum many-body system is prepared in an ordered state far from equilibrium

Significance and Impact

Understanding how quantum coherence can be preserved far from equilibrium is key to building practical quantum computers

Research Details

  • A model with variable-range interaction is shown to preserve coherent oscillations in two distinct regimes
  • Numerical results are confirmed by a qualitative analysis of analytically accessible limiting cases

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19836-0

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