### ITAMP Fellow | Harvard University

Observation of a many-body-localized discrete time crystal with a programmable spin-based quantum simulator | Francisco Machado

# Observation of a many-body-localized discrete time crystal with a programmable spin-based quantum simulator

Joe Randall, Conor E. Bradley, Floris van der Gronden, Asier Galicia, Mohamed H. Abobeih, Matthew Markham, Dan J. Twitchen, Francisco Machado, Norman Y. Yao, Tim H. Taminiau
Science (2021)
arXiv:2107.00736

#### Abstract

The discrete time crystal (DTC) is a recently discovered phase of matter that spontaneously breaks time-translation symmetry. Disorder-induced many-body-localization is required to stabilize a DTC to arbitrary times, yet an experimental investigation of this localized regime has proven elusive. Here, we observe the hallmark signatures of a many-body-localized DTC using a novel quantum simulation platform based on individually controllable $^{13}\mathrm{C}$ nuclear spins in diamond. We demonstrate the characteristic long-lived spatiotemporal order and confirm that it is robust for generic initial states. Our results are consistent with the realization of an out-of-equilibrium Floquet phase of matter and establish a programmable quantum simulator based on solid-state spins for exploring many-body physics.