Direct observation of dynamical quantum phase transitions in an interacting many-body system

Abstract

Dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) extend the concept of phase transitions and thus universality to the non-equilibrium regime. In this letter, we investigate DQPTs in a string of ions simulating interacting transverse-field Ising models. We observe non-equilibrium dynamics induced by a quantum quench and show for strings of up to 10 ions the direct detection of DQPTs by measuring a quantity that becomes non-analytic in time in the thermodynamic limit. Moreover, we provide a link between DQPTs and the dynamics of other relevant quantities such as the magnetization, and we establish a connection between DQPTs and entanglement production.