Doctoral Thesis: NMR studies of quantum thermalization

Pai Peng

Abstract:

How a many-body quantum system thermalizes under its internal interactions is an important question with fundamental and practical impacts on quantum information science, condensed matter physics, and quantum engineering. Nuclear spins in solids, featuring large system size, long coherence time and excellent controllability, provide a great playground to study quantum thermalization. I will present three research projects in my PhD thesis — (1) the emergence of classical hydrodynamical phenomena from thermalizing quantum systems; (2) prethermalization in periodically driven systems [1-3]; (3) robust dynamical decoupling of interactions using reinforcement learning techniques [4]. These results not only shine a light on various important questions in quantum thermalization, but also provide new quantum control techniques that can be generalized to other platforms.

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Paola Cappellaro

[1] PP, C. Yin, X. Huang, C. Ramanathan, P. Cappellaro. Nat. Phys. 17, 444 (2021).
[2] C. Yin, PP, X. Huang, C. Ramanathan, P. Cappellaro. Phys. Rev. B 103, 054305 (2021).
[3] K.X. Wei, PP, O. Shtanko, I. Marvian, S. Lloyd, C. Ramanathan, P. Cappellaro. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 090605 (2019).
[4] PP, X. Huang, C. Yin, L. Joseph, C. Ramanathan, P. Cappellaro. arXiv:2102.13161.