Observation of universal hierarchical relaxation in a quantum simulator

@misc{wang2026observation,
  title = {{Observation of universal hierarchical relaxation in a quantum simulator}},
  author = {Jiaozi Wang and Manoj K. Joshi and Luca Capizzi and Rainer Blatt and Christian F. Roos and Leonardo Mazza and Dario Poletti},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.29817},
  eprint = {2609.29817},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29817},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Observation of universal hierarchical relaxation in a quantum simulator
AU  - Jiaozi Wang
AU  - Manoj K. Joshi
AU  - Luca Capizzi
AU  - Rainer Blatt
AU  - Christian F. Roos
AU  - Leonardo Mazza
AU  - Dario Poletti
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/24
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.29817
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29817
AB  - Autocorrelation functions play a key role in the theoretical characterization of the dynamical properties of interacting many-body quantum systems. Recently, bringing together the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and hydrodynamics, it was theoretically predicted that the relaxation of autocorrelators can be described by the \textit{relaxation-overlap inequality}, which, when saturated, predicts a hierarchy of relaxation exponents for a set of operators that are easily identified and constructed. Here, we employ a trapped-ion quantum simulator to experimentally demonstrate it in the diffusive regime; to do so, we have extended the theory of the overlap-relaxation inequality to systems with multiple conservation laws. Our study thus opens the path to a thorough characterization of the relaxation to equilibrium and appearance of hydrodynamic behavior in quantum matter.
ER  -