Observation of hysteresis in an isolated quantum system of disordered Heisenberg spins

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of energy-dependent hysteresis in an isolated quantum spin system, revealing complex magnetic behavior and potential phase transitions through both simulations and experiments with Rydberg atoms.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of hysteresis in an isolated quantum system and introduces annealing protocols to explore its energy-dependent phase structure.

Findings

Hysteresis depends on energy and disorder strength.

Bifurcation of susceptibilities indicates different magnetic regimes.

Experimental observation with Rydberg atoms confirms simulation results.

Abstract

We find energy-dependent hysteresis in an isolated Heisenberg quantum spin system, similar to thermomagnetic hysteresis in canonical spin glasses in contact with a thermal reservoir. Analogous to zero-field cooling and field cooling in conventional magnetic materials, an annealing protocol is devised to control the energy in an isolated system. Depending on the strength of disorder, the susceptibilities at zero field bifurcate at a specific energy, which signals the presence of different magnetic regimes. This behavior is apparent both in a numerical simulation by exact diagonalization of the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with twelve particles, as well as in an experiment with thousands of Rydberg atoms representing dipolar interacting quantum spins. The annealing protocols open a new path to explore the energy-dependent phase structure of spin systems at low energies. Our observation of a nonthermal metastable regime might indicate the existence of a phase transition to a novel state of isolated quantum spin systems.