Floquet Hamiltonian Engineering of an Isolated Many-Body Spin System

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how time-periodic driving, or Floquet engineering, can transform the effective Hamiltonian of a many-body spin system, enabling control over its dynamics and opening new avenues for quantum simulation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to engineer effective Hamiltonians in a many-body spin system using Floquet techniques with ultracold Rydberg atoms, altering symmetry and relaxation behaviors.

Findings

Effective Hamiltonians with different symmetries were realized.

Relaxation dynamics were significantly modified by Floquet engineering.

Semi-classical simulations qualitatively captured the observed dynamics.

Abstract

Controlling interactions is the key element for quantum engineering of many-body systems. Using time-periodic driving, a naturally given many-body Hamiltonian of a closed quantum system can be transformed into an effective target Hamiltonian exhibiting vastly different dynamics. We demonstrate such Floquet engineering with a system of spins represented by Rydberg states in an ultracold atomic gas. Applying a sequence of spin manipulations, we change the symmetry properties of the effective Heisenberg XYZ Hamiltonian. As a consequence, the relaxation behavior of the total spin is drastically modified. The observed dynamics can be qualitatively captured by a semi-classical simulation. Synthesising a wide range of Hamiltonians opens vast opportunities for implementing quantum simulation of non-equilibrium dynamics in a single experimental setting.