---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
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_id: '22408'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Solitons—localized wave packets that travel without spreading—play a central
role in understanding transport and properties of nonlinear systems. In quantum
many-body systems, however, such robust excitations are typically destroyed by
thermalization. Here, we theoretically demonstrate the existence of solitonic
excitations in high-energy states of Rydberg atom chains in the regime of strong
nearest-neighbor Rydberg blockade. These localized wave packets propagate directionally
atop a special class of reviving initial states related to quantum many-body scars
and are capable of carrying energy. Exhibiting long coherence times, these states
constitute a form of non-ergodic quantum dynamics and can be efficiently implemented
on Rydberg atom simulators. In this work, in addition to a phenomenological description
of solitons, we identify their counterpart in a classical nonlinear dynamical
system, demonstrate their potential use in quantum information transfer, and conjecture
their relevance for anomalous energy transport reported in numerical studies of
Rydberg atom arrays.
acknowledgement: We acknowledge useful discussions with J.-S. Caux, E. Demler, J.
Dubail, F. Essler, J. Feldmeier, S. Garratt, W. W. Ho, M. Lukin, Z. Papic, S. Rotter,
F. Surace, and R. Vasseur. J.-Y.D. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Grant Agreement No. 101034413. M. L. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC-2111—390814868.
We acknowledge support by the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematics
and Physics (ESI). This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF) https://doi.org/10.55776/COE1 and the European Union—NextGenerationEU. This
research was supported in part by grant NSF PHY2309135 to the Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics (KITP).
article_number: '8783'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Aron
full_name: Kerschbaumer, Aron
id: ade85a9c-3200-11ee-973b-91c1eb240410
last_name: Kerschbaumer
orcid: 0009-0002-2370-8661
- first_name: Jean-Yves Marc
full_name: Desaules, Jean-Yves Marc
id: 6c292945-a610-11ed-9eec-c3be1ad62a80
last_name: Desaules
orcid: 0000-0002-3749-6375
- first_name: Marko
full_name: Ljubotina, Marko
id: F75EE9BE-5C90-11EA-905D-16643DDC885E
last_name: Ljubotina
orcid: 0000-0003-0038-7068
- first_name: Maksym
full_name: Serbyn, Maksym
id: 47809E7E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Serbyn
orcid: 0000-0002-2399-5827
citation:
ama: Kerschbaumer A, Desaules J-YM, Ljubotina M, Serbyn M. Quasi-solitons in Rydberg
atom chains. Nature Communications. 2026;17. doi:10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1
apa: Kerschbaumer, A., Desaules, J.-Y. M., Ljubotina, M., & Serbyn, M. (2026).
Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains. Nature Communications. Springer
Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1
chicago: Kerschbaumer, Aron, Jean-Yves Marc Desaules, Marko Ljubotina, and Maksym
Serbyn. “Quasi-Solitons in Rydberg Atom Chains.” Nature Communications.
Springer Nature, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1.
ieee: A. Kerschbaumer, J.-Y. M. Desaules, M. Ljubotina, and M. Serbyn, “Quasi-solitons
in Rydberg atom chains,” Nature Communications, vol. 17. Springer Nature,
2026.
ista: Kerschbaumer A, Desaules J-YM, Ljubotina M, Serbyn M. 2026. Quasi-solitons
in Rydberg atom chains. Nature Communications. 17, 8783.
mla: Kerschbaumer, Aron, et al. “Quasi-Solitons in Rydberg Atom Chains.” Nature
Communications, vol. 17, 8783, Springer Nature, 2026, doi:10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1.
short: A. Kerschbaumer, J.-Y.M. Desaules, M. Ljubotina, M. Serbyn, Nature Communications
17 (2026).
corr_author: '1'
das_tickbox: '1'
dataavailabilitystatement: The raw data used to generate the figures are available
at ref54.The TEBD algorithm used in this work was implemented using the ITensor
library48,49 and the integration of the classical differential equations was performed
via SciPy’s Runge-Kutta RK45 integrator52,53. The code used in this study to produce
the plots from the shared data is available at ref.54.
date_created: 2026-07-27T07:26:27Z
date_published: 2026-08-21T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-17T10:54:09Z
day: '21'
ddc:
- '530'
department:
- _id: MaSe
- _id: GradSch
doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
pmid:
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intvolume: ' 17'
language:
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month: '08'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
pmid: 1
project:
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publication: Nature Communications
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supplementarymaterial: yes
title: Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains
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...
---
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abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Describing general quantum many-body dynamics is a challenging task due to
the exponential growth of the Hilbert space with system size. The time-dependent
variational principle (TDVP) provides a powerful tool to tackle this task by projecting
quantum evolution onto a classical dynamical system within a variational manifold.
In classical systems, periodic orbits play a crucial role in understanding the
structure of the phase space and the long-term behavior of the system. However,
finding periodic orbits is generally difficult, and their existence and properties
in generic TDVP dynamics over matrix product states have remained largely unexplored.
In this work, we develop an algorithm to systematically identify and characterize
periodic orbits in TDVP dynamics. Applying our method to the periodically kicked
Ising model, we uncover both stable and unstable periodic orbits. We characterize
the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser tori in the vicinity of stable periodic orbits and
track the change of the periodic orbits as we modify the Hamiltonian parameters.
We observe that periodic orbits exist at any value of the coupling constant of
the kicked Ising model between prethermal and fully thermalizing regimes, but
their relevance to quantum dynamics and imprint on quantum eigenstates diminishes
as the system leaves the prethermal regime. Our results demonstrate that periodic
orbits provide valuable insights into the TDVP approximation of quantum many-body
evolution and establish a closer connection between quantum and classical chaos.
acknowledgement: We acknowledge useful discussions with C. Kollath, A. Green, and
D. Huse. E.P., M.L., and M.S. acknowledge support by the European Research Council
under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement
No. 850899). This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science
Fund (FWF) (Grant No. 10.55776/COE1). For open access purposes, the author has applied
a CC BY public copyright license to any author accepted manuscript version arising
from this submission. M.L. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC-2111—390814868.
This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No.
PHY-2309135 to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and by the Erwin
Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematics and Physics (ESI).
article_number: '040333'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Elena
full_name: Petrova, Elena
id: 0ac84990-897b-11ed-a09c-f5abb56a4ede
last_name: Petrova
- first_name: Marko
full_name: Ljubotina, Marko
id: F75EE9BE-5C90-11EA-905D-16643DDC885E
last_name: Ljubotina
orcid: 0000-0003-0038-7068
- first_name: Gökhan
full_name: Yalniz, Gökhan
id: 66E74FA2-D8BF-11E9-8249-8DE2E5697425
last_name: Yalniz
orcid: 0000-0002-8490-9312
- first_name: Maksym
full_name: Serbyn, Maksym
id: 47809E7E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Serbyn
orcid: 0000-0002-2399-5827
citation:
ama: Petrova E, Ljubotina M, Yalniz G, Serbyn M. Finding periodic orbits in projected
quantum many-body dynamics. PRX Quantum. 2025;6(4). doi:10.1103/tldp-kvkd
apa: Petrova, E., Ljubotina, M., Yalniz, G., & Serbyn, M. (2025). Finding periodic
orbits in projected quantum many-body dynamics. PRX Quantum. American Physical
Society. https://doi.org/10.1103/tldp-kvkd
chicago: Petrova, Elena, Marko Ljubotina, Gökhan Yalniz, and Maksym Serbyn. “Finding
Periodic Orbits in Projected Quantum Many-Body Dynamics.” PRX Quantum.
American Physical Society, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1103/tldp-kvkd.
ieee: E. Petrova, M. Ljubotina, G. Yalniz, and M. Serbyn, “Finding periodic orbits
in projected quantum many-body dynamics,” PRX Quantum, vol. 6, no. 4. American
Physical Society, 2025.
ista: Petrova E, Ljubotina M, Yalniz G, Serbyn M. 2025. Finding periodic orbits
in projected quantum many-body dynamics. PRX Quantum. 6(4), 040333.
mla: Petrova, Elena, et al. “Finding Periodic Orbits in Projected Quantum Many-Body
Dynamics.” PRX Quantum, vol. 6, no. 4, 040333, American Physical Society,
2025, doi:10.1103/tldp-kvkd.
short: E. Petrova, M. Ljubotina, G. Yalniz, M. Serbyn, PRX Quantum 6 (2025).
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2025-11-14T09:40:52Z
date_published: 2025-11-12T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-16T07:04:35Z
day: '12'
ddc:
- '539'
department:
- _id: GradSch
- _id: BjHo
- _id: MaSe
doi: 10.1103/tldp-kvkd
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
arxiv:
- '2504.12472'
isi:
- '001616473700003'
file:
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date_created: 2025-11-14T09:44:10Z
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has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 6'
isi: 1
issue: '4'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '11'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
project:
- _id: 23841C26-32DE-11EA-91FC-C7463DDC885E
call_identifier: H2020
grant_number: '850899'
name: 'Non-Ergodic Quantum Matter: Universality, Dynamics and Control'
- _id: 3AC91DDA-15DF-11EA-824D-93A3E7B544D1
call_identifier: FWF
name: FWF Open Access Fund
- _id: 92c64506-16d5-11f0-9cad-87ce313ee832
grant_number: COE01
name: Quantum Science Austria (Serbyn)
publication: PRX Quantum
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 2691-3399
publication_status: published
publisher: American Physical Society
quality_controlled: '1'
related_material:
link:
- description: News on ISTA website
relation: press_release
url: https://ista.ac.at/en/news/reaching-for-the-quantum-scars/
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Finding periodic orbits in projected quantum many-body dynamics
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legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
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...
---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '20709'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Non-Hermitian many-body localization (NH MBL) has emerged as a possible scenario
for stable localization in open systems, as suggested by spectral indicators identifying
a putative transition for finite system sizes. In this work, we shift the focus
to dynamical probes, specifically the steady-state spin current, to investigate
transport properties in a disordered, non-Hermitian XXZ spin chain. Through exact
diagonalization for small systems and tensor-network methods for larger chains,
we demonstrate that the steady-state current remains finite and decays exponentially
with disorder strength, showing no evidence of a transition up to disorder values
far beyond the previously claimed critical point. Our results reveal a stark discrepancy
between spectral indicators, which suggest localization, and transport behavior,
which indicates delocalization. This highlights the importance of dynamical observables
in characterizing NH MBL and suggests that traditional spectral measures may not
fully capture the physics of non-Hermitian systems. Additionally, we observe a
noncommutativity of limits in system size and time, further complicating the interpretation
of finite-size studies. These findings challenge the existence of NH MBL in the
studied model and underscore the need for alternative approaches to understanding
localization in non-Hermitian settings.
acknowledgement: "F.B. thanks Giuseppe de Tomasi and Oskar A. Prośniak for discussion.
P.B. acknowledges support by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (Grant Agreement No.
10.55776/ESP9057324). This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian
Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/COE1]. The numerical simulations were performed using
the ITensor library [73] on the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) and on the MPIPKS
HPC cluster. M.L. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG,
German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC-2111—390814868.
F.R. acknowledges support by the European Union-Next Generation EU with the project
“Quantum Optics in Many-Body photonic Environments” (QOMBE) code SOE2024_0000084-CUP
B77G24000480006. Open\r\naccess publication funded by Max Planck Society."
article_number: L042014
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Pietro
full_name: Brighi, Pietro
id: 4115AF5C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Brighi
orcid: 0000-0002-7969-2729
- first_name: Marko
full_name: Ljubotina, Marko
id: F75EE9BE-5C90-11EA-905D-16643DDC885E
last_name: Ljubotina
orcid: 0000-0003-0038-7068
- first_name: Federico
full_name: Roccati, Federico
last_name: Roccati
- first_name: Federico
full_name: Balducci, Federico
last_name: Balducci
citation:
ama: Brighi P, Ljubotina M, Roccati F, Balducci F. Finite steady-state current defies
non-Hermitian many-body localization. Physical Review Research. 2025;7(4).
doi:10.1103/crwj-x7j8
apa: Brighi, P., Ljubotina, M., Roccati, F., & Balducci, F. (2025). Finite steady-state
current defies non-Hermitian many-body localization. Physical Review Research.
American Physical Society. https://doi.org/10.1103/crwj-x7j8
chicago: Brighi, Pietro, Marko Ljubotina, Federico Roccati, and Federico Balducci.
“Finite Steady-State Current Defies Non-Hermitian Many-Body Localization.” Physical
Review Research. American Physical Society, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1103/crwj-x7j8.
ieee: P. Brighi, M. Ljubotina, F. Roccati, and F. Balducci, “Finite steady-state
current defies non-Hermitian many-body localization,” Physical Review Research,
vol. 7, no. 4. American Physical Society, 2025.
ista: Brighi P, Ljubotina M, Roccati F, Balducci F. 2025. Finite steady-state current
defies non-Hermitian many-body localization. Physical Review Research. 7(4), L042014.
mla: Brighi, Pietro, et al. “Finite Steady-State Current Defies Non-Hermitian Many-Body
Localization.” Physical Review Research, vol. 7, no. 4, L042014, American
Physical Society, 2025, doi:10.1103/crwj-x7j8.
short: P. Brighi, M. Ljubotina, F. Roccati, F. Balducci, Physical Review Research
7 (2025).
date_created: 2025-11-30T23:02:08Z
date_published: 2025-10-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-09-16T07:06:16Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '530'
department:
- _id: MaSe
doi: 10.1103/crwj-x7j8
external_id:
arxiv:
- '2504.02460'
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checksum: c4e582ab64ab9f8fface70bf2fd31882
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date_updated: 2025-12-01T08:00:19Z
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file_date_updated: 2025-12-01T08:00:19Z
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issue: '4'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '10'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
project:
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grant_number: COE01
name: Quantum Science Austria (Serbyn)
publication: Physical Review Research
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 2643-1564
publication_status: published
publisher: American Physical Society
quality_controlled: '1'
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title: Finite steady-state current defies non-Hermitian many-body localization
tmp:
image: /images/cc_by.png
legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 7
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...