NMR spin echo measurements of C-13 in C60, Y-89 in Y2O3, and Si-29 in silicon are shown to defy conventional expectations when more that one pi pulse is used. Multiple pi-pulse echo trains may either freeze our or accelerate the decay of the signal,
depending on the pi-pulse phase. Average Hamiltonian theory, combined with exact quantum calculations, reveals an intrinsic cause for these coherent phenomena: the dipolar coupling has a many-body effect during any real, finite pulse.
In spectroscopy, it is conventional to treat pulses much stronger than the linewidth as delta-functions. In NMR, this assumption leads to the prediction that pi pulses do not refocus the dipolar coupling. However, NMR spin echo measurements in dipola
r solids defy these conventional expectations when more than one pi pulse is used. Observed effects include a long tail in the CPMG echo train for short delays between pi pulses, an even-odd asymmetry in the echo amplitudes for long delays, an unusual fingerprint pattern for intermediate delays, and a strong sensitivity to pi-pulse phase. Experiments that set limits on possible extrinsic causes for the phenomena are reported. We find that the action of the systems internal Hamiltonian during any real pulse is sufficient to cause the effects. Exact numerical calculations, combined with average Hamiltonian theory, identify novel terms that are sensitive to parameters such as pulse phase, dipolar coupling, and system size. Visualization of the entire density matrix shows a unique flow of quantum coherence from non-observable to observable channels when applying repeated pi pulses.
We propose a novel platform for quantum many body simulations of dipolar spin models using current circuit QED technology. Our basic building blocks are 3D Transmon qubits where we use the naturally occurring dipolar interactions to realize interacti
ng spin systems. This opens the way toward the realization of a broad class of tunable spin models in both two- and one-dimensional geometries. We illustrate the potential offered by these systems in the context of dimerized Majumdar-Ghosh-type phases, archetypical examples of quantum magnetism, showing how such phases are robust against disorder and decoherence, and could be observed within state-of-the-art experiments.
Gauge theories appear broadly in physics, ranging from the standard model of particle physics to long-wavelength descriptions of topological systems in condensed matter. However, systems with sign problems are largely inaccessible to classical comput
ations and also beyond the current limitations of digital quantum hardware. In this work, we develop an analog approach to simulating gauge theories with an experimental setup that employs dipolar spins (molecules or Rydberg atoms). We consider molecules fixed in space and interacting through dipole-dipole interactions, avoiding the need for itinerant degrees of freedom. Each molecule represents either a site or gauge degree of freedom, and Gauss law is preserved by a direct and programmatic tuning of positions and internal state energies. This approach can be regarded as a form of analog systems programming and charts a path forward for near-term quantum simulation. As a first step, we numerically validate this scheme in a small-system study of U(1) quantum link models in (1+1) dimensions with link spin S = 1/2 and S = 1 and illustrate how dynamical phenomena such as string inversion and string breaking could be observed in near-term experiments. Our work brings together methods from atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, high-energy physics, and quantum information science for the study of nonperturbative processes in gauge theories.
We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of solid-state spin decoherence in an electronic spin bath, focusing specifically on ensembles of nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond and the associated substitutional nitrogen spin
bath. We perform measurements of NV spin free induction decay times $T_2^*$ and spin-echo coherence times $T_2$ in 25 diamond samples with nitrogen concentrations [N] ranging from 0.01 to 300,ppm. We introduce a microscopic model and perform numerical simulations to quantitatively explain the degradation of both $T_2^*$ and $T_2$ over four orders of magnitude in [N]. Our results resolve a long-standing discrepancy observed in NV $T_2$ experiments, enabling us to describe NV ensemble spin coherence decay shapes as emerging consistently from the contribution of many individual NV.