Observation of measurement-induced localization phenomena in a solid-state spin system
Abstract
Quantum measurement can profoundly impact the dynamics of many-body systems, for instance, inducing phase transitions from volume-law chaotic phases to area-law localized phases. While chaotic phases emerge naturally in generic many-body systems, the experimental realization of a fully localized phase driven by measurement remains challenging, primarily owing to the stringent requirement of near-perfect isolation of the system from environmental dissipation. Here we experimentally observe measurement-induced localization phenomena in an interacting 13C nuclear spin system in diamond. In contrast to previous circuit-model-based experiments, our well-isolated system evolves under a physical many-body Hamiltonian with measurements intervening at intervals. By implementing either projective measurements on a single spin or global weak measurements on the entire system, we observe substantially prolonged spin autocorrelation times as the measurement frequency increases. Our results, combined with numerical simulations, provide evidence that quantum measurement can drive a many-body system into a localized regime, and lay the groundwork for future experimental investigations into measurement-induced many-body dynamics and related entanglement phenomena.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhang2026observation,
title = {{Observation of measurement-induced localization phenomena in a solid-state spin system}},
author = {Haolin Zhang and Shaoyi Xu and Zihang Zheng and Mengqi Wang and Mingzhe Liu and Zhiyuan Zhao and Ya Wang and Tianyu Xie and Fazhan Shi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.34262},
eprint = {2610.34262},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34262},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Observation of measurement-induced localization phenomena in a solid-state spin system
AU - Haolin Zhang
AU - Shaoyi Xu
AU - Zihang Zheng
AU - Mengqi Wang
AU - Mingzhe Liu
AU - Zhiyuan Zhao
AU - Ya Wang
AU - Tianyu Xie
AU - Fazhan Shi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.34262
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34262
AB - Quantum measurement can profoundly impact the dynamics of many-body systems, for instance, inducing phase transitions from volume-law chaotic phases to area-law localized phases. While chaotic phases emerge naturally in generic many-body systems, the experimental realization of a fully localized phase driven by measurement remains challenging, primarily owing to the stringent requirement of near-perfect isolation of the system from environmental dissipation. Here we experimentally observe measurement-induced localization phenomena in an interacting ^13C nuclear spin system in diamond. In contrast to previous circuit-model-based experiments, our well-isolated system evolves under a physical many-body Hamiltonian with measurements intervening at intervals. By implementing either projective measurements on a single spin or global weak measurements on the entire system, we observe substantially prolonged spin autocorrelation times as the measurement frequency increases. Our results, combined with numerical simulations, provide evidence that quantum measurement can drive a many-body system into a localized regime, and lay the groundwork for future experimental investigations into measurement-induced many-body dynamics and related entanglement phenomena.
ER -