Dartmouth Events

Title: "Experimental Characterization of an Integrable Kicked Spin Chain"

Abstract: Solid state spin systems are excellent platforms on which to study coherent dynamics of large quantum systems.  Using solid state NMR we have been able to characterize many-spin dynamics in the cubic spin lattice of calcium fluoride and the quasi-one-dimensional system fluorapatite.  Of particular interest are experiments that use multiple-pulse coherent averaging techniques to implement an effective double quantum (DQ) Hamiltonian in the fluorapatite system.  In one dimension the DQ Hamiltonian is analytically solvable in the limit of nearest-neighbor couplings, and is related by a similarity transformation to the isotropic XY Hamiltonian.  In this talk I will review our recent experimental results studying the dynamics of the spin system in response to a series of controlled perturbations applied as periodic ``kicks’’ to the system.  In the current experiments the system remains integrable in the presence of these kicks. We are also exploring the possibility of inducing a crossover from integrable to chaotic dynamics in this system by selectively controlling the perturbations used.