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Quantum transport can distinguish between dynamical phases of matter. For instance, ballistic propagation characterizes the absence of disorder, whereas in many-body localized phases, particles do not propagate for exponentially long times. Additional possibilities include states of matter exhibiting anomalous transport in which particles propagate with a non-trivial exponent. Here we report the experimental observation of anomalous transport across a broad range of the phase diagram of a kicked quasicrystal. The Hamiltonian of our system has been predicted to exhibit a rich phase diagram, including not only fully localized and fully delocalized phases but also an extended region comprising a nested pattern of localized, delocalized and multifractal states, which gives rise to anomalous transport. Our cold-atom realization is enabled by new Floquet engineering techniques, which expand the accessible phase diagram by five orders of magnitude. Mapping transport properties throughout the phase diagram, we observe disorder-driven re-entrant delocalization and sub-ballistic transport, and we present a theoretical explanation of these phenomena based on eigenstate multifractality.

 

Modern quantum technologies rely crucially on techniques to mitigate quantum decoherence; these techniques can be either passive, achieved for example via materials engineering, or active, typically achieved via pulsed monochromatic driving fields applied to the qubit. Using a solid-state defect spin coupled to a microwave-driven spin bath, we experimentally demonstrate a decoherence mitigation method based on spectral engineering of the environmental noise with a polychromatic drive waveform, and show that it outperforms monochromatic techniques. Results are in agreement with quantitative modeling, and open the path to active decoherence protection using custom-designed waveforms applied to the environment rather than the qubit.

 

Abstract Exponential decay laws describe systems ranging from unstable nuclei to fluorescent molecules, in which the probability of jumping to a lower-energy state in any given time interval is static and history-independent. These decays, involving only a metastable state and fluctuations of the quantum vacuum, are the most fundamental nonequilibrium process and provide a microscopic model for the origins of irreversibility. Despite the fact that the apparently universal exponential decay law has been precisely tested in a variety of physical systems, it is a surprising truth that quantum mechanics requires that spontaneous decay processes have nonexponential time dependence at both very short and very long times. Cold-atom experiments have proven to be powerful probes of fundamental decay processes; in this article, we propose the use of Bose condensates in Floquet–Bloch bands as a probe of long-time nonexponential decay in single isolated emitters. We identify a range of parameters that should enable observation of long-time deviations and experimentally demonstrate a key element of the scheme: tunable decay between quasi-energy bands in a driven optical lattice.