Does a disordered isolated spin system thermalize?

Matthias Weidemüller
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 226, 69120  Heidelberg, Germany

It is often conjectured, that the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of generic disordered isolated systems exhibits thermalization. While this process is notoriously difficult to be treated theoretically, we can experimentally probe the relaxation dynamics in an isolated spin system realized by a frozen gas of Rydberg atoms. In my presentation, I will explain how Rydberg atoms can serve as a veritable quantum simulator for the dynamics of a disordered spin system of Ising or Heisenberg type, why this system exhibits dynamics similar to a spin glass, how the symmetry of the system can controlled using Floquet Hamiltonian Engineering, and how the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis can be tested by exposing the system to an effective transverse field.