Research Projects

The non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems pose a significant challenge in statistical physics. Equilibrium statistical mechanics focuses on the physical properties of phases and phase transitions, but there is limited universality and renormalization group frameworks for non-equilibrium systems. It is unclear how a quantum state evolving in non-equilibrium dynamics leads to macroscopic laws of quantum thermodynamics. Experiments in ultracold atomic physics have demonstrated our ability to control quantum effects in customized systems, paving the way for a bright future for quantum technologies. Quantum devices enable us to realize quantum systems described by simple toy models and real-time tunability of the parameters of emulated Hamiltonians, providing ideal experimental platforms for studying the non-equilibrium dynamics of these Hamiltonians. The eigenstate-thermalization-hypothesis (ETH) asserts a natural mechanism for thermalization in generic isolated systems. This idea can be generalized to construct a generalized Gibbs ensemble for an integrable system and a Floquet generalization for a time-periodic system. However, there are subsets of systems where thermalization may not occur due to the non-ergodic nature of time evolution. In the presence of strong disorder and interaction, a quantum many-body system can be many-body localized (MBL), contradicting ETH. A class of special many-body quantum eigenstates known as quantum scar states has been discovered whose quantum evolution depends strongly on initial conditions. This research aims to examine the non-equilibrium dynamics of many-body quantum Hamiltonians using periodic and other drive protocols, as well as the validity of ETH for quantum Hamiltonians and its absence in many systems.