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1. Probing many-body dynamics in a two-dimensional dipolar spin ensemble

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-01944-5  

   Davis, E. J. ; Ye, B. ; Machado, F. ; Meynell, S. A. ; Wu, W. ; Mittiga, T. ; Schenken, W. ; Joos, M. ; Kobrin, B. ; Lyu, Y. ; et al ( March 2023 , Nature Physics)

   The most direct approach for characterizing the quantum dynamics of a strongly interacting system is to measure the time evolution of its full many-body state. Despite the conceptual simplicity of this approach, it quickly becomes intractable as the system size grows. An alternate approach is to think of the many-body dynamics as generating noise, which can be measured by the decoherence of a probe qubit. Here we investigate what the decoherence dynamics of such a probe tells us about the many-body system. In particular, we utilize optically addressable probe spins to experimentally characterize both static and dynamical properties of strongly interacting magnetic dipoles. Our experimental platform consists of two types of spin defects in nitrogen delta-doped diamond: nitrogen-vacancy colour centres, which we use as probe spins, and a many-body ensemble of substitutional nitrogen impurities. We demonstrate that the many-body system’s dimensionality, dynamics and disorder are naturally encoded in the probe spins’ decoherence profile. Furthermore, we obtain direct control over the spectral properties of the many-body system, with potential applications in quantum sensing and simulation.

    

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2. A generalized phase space approach for solving quantum spin dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab354d  

   Zhu, Bihui ; Rey, Ana Maria ; Schachenmayer, Johannes ( August 2019 , New Journal of Physics)

   Numerical techniques to efficiently model out-of-equilibrium dynamics in interacting quantum many-body systems are key for advancing our capability to harness and understand complex quantum matter. Here we propose a new numerical approach which we refer to as generalized discrete truncated Wigner approximation (GDTWA). It is based on a discrete semi-classical phase space sampling and allows to investigate quantum dynamics in lattice spin systems with arbitraryS ≥ 1/2. We show that the GDTWA can accurately simulate dynamics of large ensembles in arbitrary dimensions. We apply it forS > 1/2 spin-models with dipolar long-range interactions, a scenario arising in recent experiments with magnetic atoms. We show that the method can capture beyond mean-field effects, not only at short times, but it also can correctly reproduce long time quantum-thermalization dynamics. We benchmark the method with exact diagonalization in small systems, with perturbation theory for short times, and with analytical predictions made for models which feature quantum-thermalization at long times. We apply our method to study dynamics in largeS > 1/2 spin-models and compute experimentally accessible observables such as Zeeman level populations, contrast of spin coherence, spin squeezing, and entanglement quantified by single-spin Renyi entropies. We reveal that largeSsystems can feature larger entanglement than correspondingS = 1/2 systems. Our analyses demonstrate that the GDTWA can be a powerful tool for modeling complex spin dynamics in regimes where other state-of-the art numerical methods fail.

    

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3. Optically pumped spin polarization as a probe of many-body thermalization

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz6986  

   Pagliero, Daniela ; Zangara, Pablo R. ; Henshaw, Jacob ; Ajoy, Ashok ; Acosta, Rodolfo H. ; Reimer, Jeffrey A. ; Pines, Alexander ; Meriles, Carlos A. ( May 2020 , Science Advances)

   Disorder and many body interactions are known to impact transport and thermalization in competing ways, with the dominance of one or the other giving rise to fundamentally different dynamical phases. Here we investigate the spin diffusion dynamics of 13 C in diamond, which we dynamically polarize at room temperature via optical spin pumping of engineered color centers. We focus on low-abundance, strongly hyperfine-coupled nuclei, whose role in the polarization transport we expose through the integrated impact of variable radio-frequency excitation on the observable bulk 13 C magnetic resonance signal. Unexpectedly, we find good thermal contact throughout the nuclear spin bath, virtually independent of the hyperfine coupling strength, which we attribute to effective carbon-carbon interactions mediated by the electronic spin ensemble. In particular, observations across the full range of hyperfine couplings indicate the nuclear spin diffusion constant takes values up to two orders of magnitude greater than that expected from homo-nuclear spin couplings. 

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4. Understanding the dynamics of randomly positioned dipolar spin ensembles

   Gräßer, Timo ; Rezai, Kristine ; Uhrig, Götz ( July 2023 , arXivorg)

   Dipolar spin ensembles with random spin positions attract much attention currently because they help to understand decoherence as it occurs in solid state quantum bits in contact with spin baths. Also, these ensembles are systems which may show many-body localization, at least in the sense of very slow spin dynamics. We present measurements of the autocorrelations of spins on diamond surfaces in a doubly-rotating frame which eliminates local disorder. Strikingly, the time scales in the longitudinal and the transversal channel differ by more than one order of magnitude which is a factor much greater than one would have expected from simulations of spins on lattices. A previously developed dynamic mean-field theory for spins (spinDMFT) fails to explain this phenomenon. Thus, we improve it by extending it to clusters (CspinDMFT). This theory does capture the striking mismatch up to two orders of magnitude for random ensembles. Without positional disorder, however, the mismatch is only moderate with a factor below 4. The pivotal role of positional disorder suggests that the strong mismatch is linked to precursors of many-body localization. 

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5. Coherent dynamics of strongly interacting electronic spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39115-y  

   Gong, Ruotian ; He, Guanghui ; Gao, Xingyu ; Ju, Peng ; Liu, Zhongyuan ; Ye, Bingtian ; Henriksen, Erik A. ; Li, Tongcang ; Zu, Chong ( June 2023 , Nature Communications)

   Optically active spin defects in van der Waals materials are promising platforms for modern quantum technologies. Here we investigate the coherent dynamics of strongly interacting ensembles of negatively charged boron-vacancy ($${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$$V_B^{-}$) centers in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with varying defect density. By employing advanced dynamical decoupling sequences to selectively isolate different dephasing sources, we observe more than 5-fold improvement in the measured coherence times across all hBN samples. Crucially, we identify that the many-body interaction within the$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$$V_B^{-}$ensemble plays a substantial role in the coherent dynamics, which is then used to directly estimate the concentration of$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$$V_B^{-}$. We find that at high ion implantation dosage, only a small portion of the created boron vacancy defects are in the desired negatively charged state. Finally, we investigate the spin response of$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$$V_B^{-}$to the local charged defects induced electric field signals, and estimate its ground state transverse electric field susceptibility. Our results provide new insights on the spin and charge properties of$${{{{{{{{\rm{V}}}}}}}}}_{{{{{{{{\rm{B}}}}}}}}}^{-}$$$V_B^{-}$, which are important for future use of defects in hBN as quantum sensors and simulators.

    

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