{"year":"2026","article_type":"original","ddc":["530"],"oa_version":"Published Version","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2041-1723"]},"has_accepted_license":"1","doi":"10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1","quality_controlled":"1","main_file_link":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1","open_access":"1"}],"publisher":"Springer Nature","abstract":[{"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.","lang":"eng"}],"article_processing_charge":"Yes","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"DOAJ_listed":"1","OA_type":"gold","ec_funded":1,"date_published":"2026-07-17T00:00:00Z","publication":"Nature Communications","date_created":"2026-07-27T07:26:27Z","department":[{"_id":"MaSe"},{"_id":"GradSch"}],"author":[{"orcid":"0009-0002-2370-8661","first_name":"Aron","last_name":"Kerschbaumer","id":"ade85a9c-3200-11ee-973b-91c1eb240410","full_name":"Kerschbaumer, Aron"},{"first_name":"Jean-Yves Marc","orcid":"0000-0002-3749-6375","last_name":"Desaules","id":"6c292945-a610-11ed-9eec-c3be1ad62a80","full_name":"Desaules, Jean-Yves Marc"},{"full_name":"Ljubotina, Marko","id":"F75EE9BE-5C90-11EA-905D-16643DDC885E","last_name":"Ljubotina","first_name":"Marko","orcid":"0000-0003-0038-7068"},{"full_name":"Serbyn, Maksym","first_name":"Maksym","orcid":"0000-0002-2399-5827","last_name":"Serbyn","id":"47809E7E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}],"publication_status":"epub_ahead","month":"07","type":"journal_article","status":"public","tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png"},"date_updated":"2026-07-30T05:42:17Z","PlanS_conform":"1","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","name":"IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program","grant_number":"101034413","_id":"fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c"}],"oa":1,"citation":{"apa":"Kerschbaumer, A., Desaules, J.-Y. M., Ljubotina, M., &#38; Serbyn, M. (2026). Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains. <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1</a>","ama":"Kerschbaumer A, Desaules J-YM, Ljubotina M, Serbyn M. Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains. <i>Nature Communications</i>. 2026. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1\">10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1</a>","chicago":"Kerschbaumer, Aron, Jean-Yves Marc Desaules, Marko Ljubotina, and Maksym Serbyn. “Quasi-Solitons in Rydberg Atom Chains.” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1</a>.","short":"A. Kerschbaumer, J.-Y.M. Desaules, M. Ljubotina, M. Serbyn, Nature Communications (2026).","ista":"Kerschbaumer A, Desaules J-YM, Ljubotina M, Serbyn M. 2026. Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains. Nature Communications.","ieee":"A. Kerschbaumer, J.-Y. M. Desaules, M. Ljubotina, and M. Serbyn, “Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains,” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2026.","mla":"Kerschbaumer, Aron, et al. “Quasi-Solitons in Rydberg Atom Chains.” <i>Nature Communications</i>, Springer Nature, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1\">10.1038/s41467-026-75598-1</a>."},"OA_place":"publisher","title":"Quasi-solitons in Rydberg atom chains","supplementarymaterial":"yes","corr_author":"1","day":"17","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).","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","_id":"22408"}