Possible many-body localization in a long-lived finite-temperature ultracold quasi-neutral molecular plasma

TL;DR

This paper proposes that ultracold nitric oxide plasma can serve as an experimental platform to explore quantum many-body localization phenomena at finite temperatures, using a quantum spin model to describe its long-lived arrested state.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic quantum model for the long-lived arrested phase of ultracold plasma, highlighting its potential for studying disordered quantum many-body physics.

Findings

Development of an effective many-body spin Hamiltonian including dipole-dipole and van der Waals interactions.

Identification of the arrested phase as a potential many-body localized state.

Proposal of ultracold plasma as a new platform for quantum disordered systems.

Abstract

We argue that the quenched ultracold plasma presents an experimental platform for studying quantum many-body physics of disordered systems in the long-time and finite energy-density limits. We consider an experiment that quenches a plasma of nitric oxide to an ultracold system of Rydberg molecules, ions and electrons that exhibits a long-lived state of arrested relaxation. The qualitative features of this state fail to conform with classical models. Here, we develop a microscopic quantum description for the arrested phase based on an effective many-body spin Hamiltonian that includes both dipole-dipole and van der Waals interactions. This effective model appears to offer a way to envision the essential quantum disordered non-equilibrium physics of this system.