Controlling quantum many-body dynamics in driven Rydberg atom arrays
D. Bluvstein, A. Omran, H. Levine, A. Keesling, G. Semeghini, S. Ebadi, T. T. Wang, A. A. Michailidis, N. Maskara, W. W. Ho, S. Choi, M. Serbyn, M. Greiner, V. Vuletić, M. D. Lukin
Abstract
The control of nonequilibrium quantum dynamics in many-body systems is challenging because interactions typically lead to thermalization and a chaotic spreading throughout Hilbert space. We investigate nonequilibrium dynamics after rapid quenches in a many-body system composed of 3 to 200 strongly interacting qubits in one and two spatial dimensions. Using a programmable quantum simulator based on Rydberg atom arrays, we show that coherent revivals associated with so-called quantum many-body scars can be stabilized by periodic driving, which generates a robust subharmonic response akin to discrete time-crystalline order. We map Hilbert space dynamics, geometry dependence, phase diagrams, and system-size dependence of this emergent phenomenon, demonstrating new ways to steer complex dynamics in many-body systems and enabling potential applications in quantum information science.